•l-l 



E 

. -2. 



SPEECH 



MAJ.-GEN. BENJ. F. BUTLER, 



CAMPAIGN BEFORE EICHMOND, 



1864r. 



DELIVEUED AT LOWELL, MASS., JANUARY 29, 1865. 



WITH AI!^ APPENDIX: 

TUB TWO ATTACKS ON FOKT FISHER; SPEECH ON THE TREATMENT OF THE NEGRO, 

DELTVEKED AT BOSTON, MASS., FEBRUARY 4, 1865; SPEECH OF Hon. GEO. S. 

BOUTWELL, IN REPLY TO CHARGES OF Hox. JAMES BROOKS, OF NEW 

YORK, AGAINST Gen. BEXJ. F. BUTLER, DELIVERED IN THE 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 24, 1865. 



BOSTON: 

WRIGHT & POTTEE, PRINTERS. 

1865. 




Glass. 
Book 



ElYll 




z 



SPEECH 



MAJ.-GEN. BENJ. F. BUTLER, 



CAMPAIGN BEFORE RICHMOND, 

1864r. 
DELIVERED AT LOWELL, MASS., JANUARY 29, 1865. 



WITH AN APPENDIX: 

THE TWO ATTACKS ON FORT FISHER; SPEECH ON THE TREATMENT OF THE NEGRO, 

DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MASS., FEBRUARY 4, 1865; SPEECH OF Hon. GEO. S. 

BOUTWELL, IN REPLY TO CHARGES OF Hon. JAMES BROOKS, OF NEW 

YORK, AGAINST Gen. BENJ. F. BUTLER, DELIVERED IN THE 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 24, 1865. 



BOSTON: 

WRIGHT & POTTER, PRINTERS. 
1865. 



MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER AT HOME. 



On Saturday, Jaouary 29th, the largest meeting ever con- 
vened in Huntington Hall, welcomed General Butler home. A 
Committee of forty-five of the most prominent citizens accom- 
panied the General to the Hall, where the Mayor addressed 
the General as follows: — 

MAYOR PEABODY'S ADDRESS. 

Fellow-Citizens, — You have assembled to-night to welcome 
to his home one who needs no introduction through me to a 
Lowell audience. This Committee of his neighbors and friends 
have designated me to preside at this spontaneous gathering. 
In all that pertains to our distinguished friend, as connected 
with this Rebellion, you, fellow-citizens, have always manifested 
a deep interest. You well remember his untiring exertions 
in forwarding our Sixth Regiment, on the ever memorable 16th 
of April, 1861. You know with what alacrity he left his home 
and a lucrative profession to offer his services to the Govern- 
ment, the heads of which were not of his choice. It was 
sufficient for him to know that our national flag had been 
assailed, to cause him to sunder every tie except that which 
bound him to his country, and rush to her defence. With 
anxious hearts you followed him to Havre-de-Grace, and 
rejoiced when he demonstrated the fact that there were other 
routes to the Capital except through Baltimore. You rejoiced 
when, subsequently, he was enabled to save Maryland from 
the treason which threatened her, and to give her direction in 
that glorious path which has since led her to shake off the 
shackles of treason and slavery, and emerge a free and loyal 



State. You have followed him to New Orleans, and witnessed 
with feelings of pride his masterly energy in governing the 
heterogeneous population of that city, refuting the subtleties of 
foreign diplomatists, punishing the guilty, and protecting the 
poor and unfortunate ; and, more recently, in the siege of 
Richmond, you have anxiously watched the progress of events, 
ever solicitous for his success. To you, fellow-citizens, who 
so well know and appreciate him, it is needless for me to say 
more, as I know you are more anxious to hear his familiar voice 
than mine. 

General Butler, on behalf of this Committee and this vast 
assemblage of your fellow-citizens, I bid you a cordial welcome 
to your home, assuring you, sir, that to whatever circumstances 
we are indebted for this visit, our confidence in your patriotism, 
integrity, and ability, is unimpaired. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I have the honor to present to you 
your distinguished fellow-citizen, Major-General Butler. 

RESPONSE OF GENERAL BUTLER. 

THE WOEK FOR THE FREEDMEN IN HIS DEPARTMENT. 

His Honor the Mayor, my Friends and Neighbors, — I 
propose, with your leave, to recall to your minds what has 
happened to the army in the field, and especially what has 
occurred within the narrower circle where I have endeavored to 
serve the interests of the country, since I left you a year ago 
November last. Called by the partial kindness of the Presi- 
dent to take command of the Department of Virginia and North 
Carolina, upon reaching Fortress Monroe, and looking about 
to see what duties devolved upon me, I found there, in the first 
place, demanding immediate attention, eighty thousand freed- 
men, women and children, who had escaped from slavery, and 
thrown themselves as wards upon the guardianship of the 
United States. There was no departmental organization for 
their care, maintenance, protection, and education. 

My first duty, then, upon assuming command in the absence 



of active military operations, seemed to be toward the helpless 
beings thus cast upon our hands. I knew what you would have 
said ought to be done under the circumstances, and I did as I 
thought you would have done. I established system, order, 
and organization of labor, so that the freedman who would 
work could work ; and those who would not work might find 
means whereby they should work ; and so that every freedman, 
woman, and child should have what, thank God, we always have 
had in Massachusetts for all, food and raiment, and protection 
from the inclemency of the weather. (Applause.) 

A HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS SAVED, AND FIVE THOUSAND 
NEGRO SOLDIERS RECRUITED. 

Aided by your fellow-citizens, Captain Wilder, Captain 
Brown, and Captain James, I applied myself to this work, and 
presently order and industry arose out of chaos in the affairs 
of the freedmen of North Carolina and Virginia. The organ- 
ization of those affairs was carried on still further under the 
charge of Lieutenant-Colonel Kinsman, and has since been 
continued under the superintendence of your townsman. Major 
Carney. We have, as the result of one year's work in that 
Department, five thousand men brought into the Army of the 
United States, without bounty; and how many more with 
bounty I do not know, because they were credited to the 
several States in whose regiments they enlisted, and not to 
the United States. By the labors of this year, we have demon- 
strated that the former slave population of the South can be 
self-supporting, even without a large proportion of the able- 
bodied men. We have saved from the Government rations 
alone, which were to be dealt out to them, one hundred 
thousand dollars, and all this in two Districts, having made 
the large losses in the negro affairs of North Carolina because 
of the disturbance of labor from the yellow fever, the fall of 
Plymouth, and the evacuation of Washington, in April last, by 
the order of the Lieutenant-General. Within the same space 



6 

of time we have succeeded in demonstrating tliat these negroes 
are capable of being educated. 

THE FREEDMEN TAUGHT TO READ. 

Aided by the self-sacrificing labors of benevolent teachers 
from the North, hundreds and thousands of children have there 
been taught to read, and adults, too, who never read before. 
And thus the negro is being fitted for that new state of liberty 
and citizenship to which he has been raised. Such are some 
of the results of this war. (Applause.) 

THE EXCHANGE OP PRISONERS OF WAR, 

The next matter in order of time to which my attention was 
called was the exchange of prisoners : a subject which interests 
every man, woman, and child, who has a brother, son, husband, 
or father, in the army. That also was placed in my hands by 
the partiality of the President. I found the former Commis- 
sioner of Exchange of the United States, and the Agent acting 
in the behalf of the Confederate States, contending upon ques- 
tions as to how the accounts, in regard to the exchange of 
prisoners, should be kept; whether the United States had 
received a few more or less than the Confederate States, or 
the contrary; and a state of embittered feeling had arisen 
between them, so that exchanges had been suspended. I, there- 
fore, tried the experiment to see if the Confederates would 
return man for man ; they giving us as many soldiers as we 
gave to them. This was done ; and laying all other questions 
aside, a special exchange went on. Some time in March last, 
Mr. Ould, the Confederate Agent of Exchange, came to For- 
tress Monroe, and there, after a full discussion of all matters of 
difference, we came to a just and equitable understanding; 
arranging the adjustment of numbers delivered, paroles, and 
exchanges, on all disputed points but one, and that related to 
exchange of negro soldiers. The Confederate Agent persisted 
that negroes heretofore in bondage, when captured, should 



be treated as slaves, and set at work as slaves under their 
masters. This I could not permit. Whoever had worn the 
uniform of the United States, as a soldier, was entitled to its 
protection, in the fullest sense. Having settled all else, how- 
ever, I had determined to bring about a system of special 
exchanges until we should receive all the white men held by 
the rebels, and should give them an equal number in exchange, 
and thus all our white soldiers would be liberated. When the 
exchange, man for man, had given us all our white soldiers in 
their prisons, there would still remain about fifteen or twenty 
thousand rebel prisoners in our hands, and only about five 
hundred negro soldiers in theirs. 

I 

RETALIATION PROPOSED, UNLESS THE REBELS TREATED THE NEGRO 
SOLDIERS AS PRISONERS OF WAR. 

Arriving at that point, I proposed to say to the Confed- 
erates, we are willing to take these five hundred men and give 
you an equal number of your soldiers. If the rebels refused 
that ofFer, and still held our negro soldiers in bondage and at 
labor, I designed to say to them: "If you do not deliver me 
those men like other prisoners of war, and if you work those 
five hundred, I will work your fifteen thousand j " and as 
Napoleon built the canal of Languedoc with forty thousand 
Austrian prisoners of war, so will this Government build the 
ship canal we want to connect the Mississippi river with the 
Lakes, by the labor of the rebel prisoners in our hands. 

EFFECT OF RETALIATION AT DUTCH GAP. 

My word for it, if that stand had been taken, we should 
never have built much canal, because, when afterward the 
rebels set some of my negro soldiers at work on the fortifi- 
cations, and I put an equal number of Virginia Reserves at 
work in Dutch Gap in retaliation, the negroes were instantly 
taken out of the trenches, and treated as prisoners of war, 

I reported the points of agreement between myself and the 



8 

rebel agent to the Secretary of War, and asked for power to 
adjust the other questions of difference so as to have the ques- 
tion of enslaving negro soldiers stand alone, to be dealt with 
by itself, and that the whole power of the United States 
should be exerted to do justice to those who had fought the 
battles of the country, and been captured in its service. 

ORDERS OF GENERAL GRANT ON EXCHANGE. 

The whole subject was referred by the Secretary of "War to 
the Lieutenant-General commanding, who telegraphed me on the 
fourteenth of April, 1864, in substance, "Break off all negoti- 
ations on the subject of exchange till further orders." And, 
therefore, all negotiations were broken off, save that a special 
exchange of sick and wounded on either side went on. 

On the 20th of April, I received another telegram from 
General Grant, ordering not another man to he given to the 
rebels. To that I answered, on the same day, " Lieutenant- 
General Grant's instructions shall be implicitly obeyed. I 
assume that you do not mean to stop the special exchange of 
the sick and wounded now going on." To this I received a 
reply in substance, " Do not give the rebels a single able-bodied 
man." 

EXCHANGE CORRESPONDENCE SO MANAGED AS TO PUT GOVERN- 
MENT IN THE RIGHT UPON STOPPING EXCHANGES. 

From that hour, so long as I remained in the Department, 
exchanges of prisoners stopped under that order, because I 
could not give the rebels any of their able-bodied soldiers in 
exchange. By sending the sick and wounded forward, 
however, some twelve thousand of our suffering soldiers were 
relieved, being upward of eight thousand more than we gave 
the rebels. 

In August last, Mr. Ould, finding negotiations were broken 
off, and that no exchanges were made, wrote to General 
Hitchcock, the Commissioner at Washington, that the rebels 



9 

were ready to exchange, man for man, all the prisoners held 
by them, as I had proposed in December. 

Under the instructions of the Lieutenant-General, I wrote 
to Mr. Ould a letter, which has been published, saying — "Do 
you mean all ? Do you mean to give up all your action, and 
revoke all your laws about black men employed as soldiers ? " 
These questions were therein argued, justly, as I think — not 
diplomatically, but obtrusively and demonstratively; not for 
the purpose of furthering exchange of prisoners, but for the 
purpose of preventing and stopping the exchange, and furnish- 
ing a ground on which we could fairly stand. 

I am now at liberty to state these facts, because they appear 
in the correspondence on the subject of exchange, now on the 
public files of Congress, furnished by the War Department 
upon resolution. 

RESPONSIBILITY OP EXCHANGES UPON GENERAL GRANT. 

I am not at liberty to state my opinion as to the correctness 
and propriety of this course of action of the Lieutenant- 
General in relation to exchanges, because, as it is not proper 
to utter a word of condemnation of any act of my superiors, I 
may not even applaud where I think them right, lest, not 
applauding in other instances, such acts as I may mention 
would imply censure. I only desire that the responsibility of 
stopping exchanges of prisoners, be it wise or unwise, should 
rest upon the Lieutenant-General commanding, and not upon 
me. I have carried the weight of so grave a matter for nine 
months, and now propose, as the facts are laid before Congress 
and the country, not to carry any longer any more of it than 
belongs to me. 

GENERAL BUTLER'S FAREWELL ADDRESS NOT A CRITICISM ON 

ANYBODY. 

Since I wrote my farewell address to the Army of the 
James, I have received letters from the far West, saying, " Why 



10 

do you claim that you have not uselessly sacrificed the lives of 
your men, when you have left thousands of our brothers and 
sons to starve and rot in Southern prisons ? " In answer to 
all such appeals, I am allowed only to repeat — "I have not 
uselessly sacrificed the lives of the soldiers of the Union ; 
their blood does not stain my garments." This is not criticism 
upon the acts of anybody, but only the enunciation of a fact, 
in explanation of which the responsibilities of my position will 
not allow me to say more. 

PLYMOUTH FALLS BECAUSE THE NAVY BOATS ARE DRIVEN OUT. 

The next movement of consequence in the Department, was 
the attack upon Plymouth by the enemy. Plymouth was 
defended in a most gallant and able manner by General 
Wessels, who did all a brave man could to keep it. But the 
gunboats had been depended upon for holding the Roanoke 
River, and when they were driven out by the rebel ram Albe- 
marle, Plymouth was no longer defensible. If the gallant and 
lamented Flusser, who commanded the naval force had not 
fallen in the first attack, their ram would not have controlled 
the river, and the result might not have happened. 

WASHINGTON EVACUATED BY THE ORDER OF GENERAL GRANT. 

Another considerable event was the evacuation of Washing- 
ton, N. C, in April. This was done under the orders of the 
Lieutenant-General with entire deliberation, without attack, 
and every dollar's worth of Government property brought 
away, and the forces holding it taken as a part of the movable 
column of the Army of the James. I should hardly have 
mentioned this evacuation had it not been the subject of ani- 
madversion, and to show that whatever was done was done 
under explicit orders. Of the propriety of this evacuation, 
however strong an opinion I might have in its favor, I am not 
at liberty to speak, for the reasons I have before given you. 



11 



THE RAPID AND SUCCESSFUL MARCH ON BERMUDA HUNDRED. 

On the first of April last, two large armies lay face to face, 
opposed to each other, on the Rapidan. A small army of 
about eighteen thousand men, six thousand of whom were 
negroes, lay in and around Fortress Monroe. Twenty thousand 
men more were ordered from the Department of the South to 
join that little army. Looking over the whole field, it seemed 
to me to be the part of wisdom to move that army upon 
Bermuda Hundred, establishing there a base for operations as 
strong and as easily defended as Fortress Monroe : a base not 
to be interfered with or lost while the war lasts, and where 
an army lies with its hand fastened upon the throat of the 
rebel capital. (Great cheering.) This proposition was sub- 
mitted to General Grant, and approved by him. This was 
done. On the fourth day of May, the army of the James, 
thirty-five thousand strong, with its artillery, its cavalry, and 
its supplies for thirty days, was put on board ship, and seemed, 
at first, to threaten the enemy up the York river, within thirty 
miles of their capital; but within twenty-four hours, that army 
was within twelve miles of Richmond, where it has held its 
position ever since — a position to which it advanced without 
the shedding of a drop of blood. 

On the same day, the Army of the Potomac, under the com- 
mand of General Meade, more than a hundred thousand strong, 
started from the Rapidan, also toward Richmond. 

« 

PLAN OF SURROUNDING RICHMOND. 

I need not repeat what you all know of the history of the 
march of that army ; but I have a right to say, because now it 
has passed into history, that the intention with which that 
army set out upon its march was to move round the north side 
of Richmond, above Mechanicsville, strike the James River 
above the city of Richmond, and there forming a junction with 
the Army of the James, which was to move up toward 



12 

Richmond on the south side of the James River, get around 
the city on the south side, and thus cut it ofif. 

Now, perhaps, you can understand what may have slightly 
puzzled you heretofore, why the army of the James was 
demonstrating towards Drury's Bluff, on the sixteenth of May, 
while the Army of the Potomac was coming down from the 
Rapidan on the north side toward Richmond. But the Army 
of the Potomac never reached its destination on the north 
side of the James ; nor did the Army of the James succeed in 
reaching the James above Richmond on the south side. 
Indeed, there was no call for the Army of the James above 
Richmond, if the Army of the Potomac could not join it ; but, 
if the Army of the James failed to accomplish all that it 
hoped for, at least it met with no disaster. 



SEVENTEEN THOUSAND MEN SENT TO RELIEVE THE ARMY OF THE 
POTOMAC AT COAL HARBOR. 

We held the lines that we took up, from the Appomattox to 
the James, and we hold them to this day — the advanced lines 
of all the armies operating against Richmond. (Renewed 
applause.) Beside doing this, after fortifying our position, 
the Army of the James sent seventeen thousand men to the 
aid of the Army of the Potomac, and saved the battle of Coal 
Harbor. 



FIRST ASSAULT ON PETERSBURG FAILED BECAUSE GENERAL GILMORE 
DID NOT OBEY ORDERS. 

Pass with me now to the next movement of the Army of the 
James, — the attempt to take Petersburg, on the 9 th of June. 
Upon that occasion, the orders of its Commander were not 
obeyed ; and the projected assault on Petersburg was not 
made. But you will observe, if there was failure, there was 
no disasters. 



13 



THE ARMY OF THE JAMES TAKE THE DEFENCES OF PETERSBURG WITH 
A SKIRMISH LINE, AND NOBODY HAS GONE ANY FARTHER. 

On the 15th of June, the column of the Army of the James 
having returned from the relief of the Army of the Potomac, 
another movement on Petersburg took place, which resulted in 
the capture of the outer, and, at that time, only line of defen- 
sive works around Petersburg, which works, held by the Army 
of the James, are the advanced lines of the armies operating 
upon Petersburg to this day. The strongest of these works 
was captured by a skirmish line of negro soldiers, and no 
troops have advanced a step beyond their position in that 
direction, after seven months of siege. 

ASSAULT IN TWO COLUMNS MADE ON THE ENEMY's WORKS ON THE 
NORTH SIDE OF THE JAMES BATTERY HARRISON CAPTURED. 

On the 29th of September, the Army of the James crossed 
the river in two columns — one at Yarina, the other at Deep 
Bottom. One attacked Battery Harrison, the skirmish line 
being gallantly led by a Lowell boy, Colonel Donahoe, who 
fell wounded. That column captured Battery Harrison, the 
strongest work of the rebels in their sixty miles of intrench- 
ments around Richmond. 

THE NEGROES GALLANTLY CARRY NEWMARKET HEIGHTS. 

On the same day, crossing at Deep Bottom, the Tenth Corps, 
under the lamented Birney, advanced its negro division, three 
thousand strong, in column of division, with musket "right 
shoulder shift," with not a cap on a single cone of a gun, 
charged through a swamp, over a breastwork covered by 
double lines of abattis, like a flash, in the face of eight hundred 
rebels, who never stopped running for five miles. (Laughter 
and cheers.) The question as to whether the negro would 
fight was there settled before the eyes of every doubter in the 
army ; and their masters, from that time forward, asked, not 
the question, " will the negroes fight ? " but, " will they fight 
for us ? " 



u 



THE ASSAULT BY THE NEGROES PROVE THEIR FIGHTING QUALITIES. 

I have thus enumerated all the assaults that were ordered 
by the Commander of the Army of the James, — one against a 
strong but illy-defended work, Fort Harrison; and another 
against a very strong and well-defended work, the assault made 
by negroes, ordered for the high and noble purpose of demon- 
strating forever the capabilities of a race in arms resting 
under every prejudice. The Commander of the Army felt that 
for such a cause he could take the responsibility of risking the 
loss of the men by the assault, who lay there, as he rode past 
them, with their faces upturned to God, in mute appeal for his 
approval of the necessary sacrifice in so holy a cause. (Great 
cheering.) 

HAS SHOWN THAT THE LIVES OF HIS SOLDIERS WERE NOT USELESSLY 

SACRIFICED. 

And thus, my friends, I felt that I had a right to say, when 
I left the Army of the James : " I have refused to order the 
sacrifice of such soldiers uselessly ; " and I think the declara- 
tion ought not to be taken as a criticism upon any one, but 
simply as a statement of the facts of my own manner of con- 
ducting operations. 

GENERAL LEE IS REPULSED IN HIS ASSAULT THE ARMY OP THE 

JAMES HOLDS THE MOST ADVANCED POSITION TO THIS DAY. 

On the 1st of October, General Lee, concentrating his forces* 
made a very fierce and savage attack upon Battery Harrison, 
in which the whole of a North Carolina brigade was swept 
away (seven regiments being entirely cut to pieces), in a vain 
effort to retake what our forces had captured on the 29th of 
September. So that the Army of the James lies safely 
intrenched within six miles of Richmond, which again is the 
advanced position of all the forces operating against the Rebel 
Capital. 



15 



THE EXPEDITION TO WILMINGTON. 

The next movement of the Army of the James (except that 
of the 27th of October, when it made a demonstration toward 
Eichmond, for the purpose of holding the enemy in their 
trenches while the Army of the Potomac attempted to turn 
their left, at Hatcher's Run), was that which has caused some 
little discussion in the community of late, — the attempt upon 
Wilmington ; to some of the leading points in regard to which 
I now wish to direct your careful attention. 

THE NAVY DISCLOSE THE PURPOSE OF THE EXPEDITION. 

As early as August last, a fleet, under Admiral Porter, com- 
menced to assemble at Fortress Monroe. Immediately upon 
the appearance of the fleet in Hampton Roads, instead of any 
attempt being made to keep the expedition secret, there 
commenced a flourish of trumpets about it, which is only 
equalled by the cackling of a hen when she is about to set on 
a single egg (laughter), so that nearly every man in the coun- 
try, North and South, knew where the fleet was going. You 
all knew — the rebels all knew — that it was fitting out to be 
sent to Wilmington ; indeed, to such an extent was the publi- 
city carried, that, although General Weitzel, with General 
Graham, of the Naval Brigade, had been sent to reconnoitre 
the vicinity of Fort Fisher, yet General Grant concluded that 
the enemy were so informed of the purposes of the expedition, 
that it was not best to send any men at that time, and did 
actually refuse to do so, leaving the fleet lying in Hampton. 
Roads for months, claiming to be ready, and boasting what 
they would do to Wilmington. 

EXPERIMENT OP THE POWDER-BOAT TO BE TRIED, AND THE FORT TO 
BE SURPRISED. 

Afterwards, for the purpose of trying an experiment, and of 
allowing the question to be tested, — what would be the effect 
of the explosion of a large quantity of powder in the neighbor- 



16 



hood of a fortification, — to see whether it would have the 
destructive effect which it was claimed by some it would have, 
or whether it would result in comparative harmlessness — 
General Grant determined to send three thousand men in aid 
of the Navy 5 and, after learning that the enemy were detach- 
ing forces to meet Sherman, he increased the force to six 
thousand (one-half of which were negroes), hoping to surprise 
Fort Fisher, upon the supposition that General Bragg had 
carried off his forces to meet Sherman, and, therefore, the fort 
would be found undefended by any considerable force. 

THE NAVY WILL NOT EUN BY FORTS FARRAGUT WAS NOT THERE. 

General Grant also hoped that a portion of the fleet would 
run by the fort into Cape Fear River, and then, by landing the 
troops, and intrenching across the Peninsula between the 
river and the sea, blockade running, at least, might be stopped^ 

It was said that there was not sufficient depth of water to 
go up the river ; but as, since the fort has indeed been silenced, 
there seems to have been no considerable difficulty in getting 
most of the gunboats up the river, I am inclined to the opinion 
that it was another want — rather than the want of water — 
that prevented the gunboats from going up the river by the 
forts while they were in possession of the enemy, — Farragut 
was not there ! 

Although Admiral Porter telegraphed me, which telegraph 
I have, that he would be ready on the 8th day of December, 
and the troops were ready on that day, yet we waited for the 
fleet at Fortress Monroe until the 14th day of December, when 
we sailed from Chesapeake Bay, at four o'clock in the after- 
noon. We arrived at the place of rendezvous, appointed by 
Admiral Porter's printed order, on the night of the 15th; and 
there we waited three days, while the sun never shone more 
brightly in the heavens, while the sea was never calmer, while 
the wind was never more zephyr-like, uutil the 18th, but still 
Admiral Porter did not come, and the fort at that time was 



17 

substantially undefended, as its reinforcements did not arrive 
till the night of the 24th of December. 



GENERAL BUTLER HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PREPARATION OF 
THE POWDER-BOAT. 

Judge, then, of my surprise when I read in one dispatch, — 
first, that the army was not ready soon enough ; in another, 
that we sailed too soon ; and again, in another dispatch (for 
they seem to be fruitful of dispatches), that the "powder-boat 
was prepared by me, and that we waited for that." 

Fellow-Citizens, — I have lived with you, man and boy, for 
thirty years, and I am going to live with you, if you will have 
me, for thirty years longer. (Great applause.) I have stood 
before you many times, and I hope to stand before you many 
times more, to advise you upon that which is for the good of 
the country ; but, often as I have met you here, no man can say 
that I ever misrepresented a fact, and when I now tell you that 
I never saw that powder-boat, that all I had to do with it was 
to order my Ordnance OflBcer to turn over to the navy one 
hundred and fifty tons of powder, and that the whole thing 
was under the charge of the navy, and was arranged exactly 
as the navy desired, — when they wished and how they wished, 
— you can judge of the truth of the dispatch which states that 
I prepared the powder-boat. 

GENERAL BUTLER DESIRED THE EXPERIMENT SHOULD BE TRIED 

PORTER FEARS IT WILL BLOW HIM UP TWENTY-FIVE MILES OFF. 

Whoever states it, there is no truth in it. But the powder- 
boat, it is said, was a failure. Granted j as the powder in it 
never was wholly set on fire. It was intended that there 
should be then exploded more powder than ever was at once 
exploded before, — powder enough, in my judgment, to have 
done very great damage, — so much, in fact, that I have the 
written advice of Admiral Porter that I should stand out 
twenty-five miles, let off the steam, and draw the fire from the 
2 



18 

boiler of my boat before it went off, lest the explosion should 
blow me up even there. (Laughter and applause.) 

That suggestion, I say, I have in writing. Yet, Porter would 
intimate I had too much faith in the efficacy of the powder- 
boat, and that he had no belief in its effect. Certain, it is 
admitted, that he got his fleet so far away from the scene of 
the explosion ; that, for that or some other reason, he could 
not get back again under ten hours thereafter, to fire the first 
shot at the fort after the powder-boat exploded. There was a 
very large quantity of powder ; and I am still confident that, 
if it had gone off, it would have done great damage. It was 
intended to place it in bags, with fuses running all through it, 
80 that it might be instantaneously exploded in every part; 
but how was it done ? The clock-work, the candles, the fuses, 
every thing prepared to ignite it, failed ; and the only way it 
was got off at all, was to set fire to the ship at the bow, and 
let it burn up to one end of the mass of powder, the explosion 
of which sent the other part into the water, without being 
burnt ; so that, in my belief, not more than one-tenth of the 
powder on board ever did burn, making an explosion, indeed, 
which is described as hardly more than would have been felt 
from a fifteen-inch gun. You see, therefore, the experiment 
was not tried. Some day it may be. 

PORTER BLOWS UP THE POWDER-BOAT WHEN BUTLER IS SIXTY-FIVE 
MILES OFF, AND TRIES TO STEAL A MARCH ON THE ARMY AND 
GET PRIZE-MONEY. 

At all events, the explosion, such as it was, did not hurt me, 
because I was sixty-five miles off, in the harbor of Beaufort, 
coaling and watering my transports, after the storm ; relying 
upon the promise of Admiral Porter, made to my officers, that 
he would give me notice, so that I could be present with the 
troops, when it should be determined to blow up the powder- 
ship, to land and attack the fort, under cover of the injury and 
demoralization caused by the explosion. Yet, the Admiral 
blew it up when he knew that I was sixty-five miles off, — out 



19 

of tender consideration for my safety, I suppose ; for I know 
of no other reason why he should have failed to keep his 
promise, except, perhaps, believing that the powder-boat would 
blow up a steamboat twenty-five miles off, the Admiral sup- 
posed it would utterly demolish the fort and garrison, and he 
would only have to land his marines, and put on the works, 
David Porter, his p^ mark, and hand it over to the army, 
when they arrived, with a claim for prize-money. Let me say 
a word or two about the explosion. In the first place, the 
powder was expected to, at least, paralyze the men in the 
fortification ; and it was intended that the army should, there- 
upon, immediately land and take possession of the works. 
Such being the plan, why explode the powder when the army 
was sixty-five miles off? 

PORTER IS TIRED. 

Again, the time for the explosion was to be so chosen that, 
if it paralyzed the men, or did any damage to the works, it 
might be promptly taken advantage of, by landing the army 
and an attack by the navy. Why, then, blow up the powder 
at one o'clock at night, yet fail to fire even the first gun from 
the navy until twelve o'clock the next day, thus giving the 
enemy eleven hours to get over being stunned, and to repair 
any damage that might have been caused by the explosion ? 

Well, a bombardment was opened upon Fort Fisher ; and it 
seemed to be conducted with considerable skill, the fire being 
directed with a good deal of accuracy. This for one day. 
Arriving at night, I sent my Staff-Ofiicer to Admiral Porter to 
say that I would consult with him about the attack to be made 
in the morning of the next day. The Admiral sent me word 
that he was tired, and could not see me that night, but that he 
would see me or my officers as early the next morning as we 
were ready. Intending to attack a fort, and having, as we 
thought, a day's work before us, we did as we generally do in 
Lowell, set about it at daylight. General Weitzel and Com- 



20 

stock went on board the " Malvern," at half past six o'clock, 
but the Admiral was not up. 

A STORM COMES UP TO PREVENT FURTHER LANDING. 

They arranged, however, that we should attack at eight 
o'clock, but it was twelve o'clock before the navy reported 
that they had covered the shore so that we could make a land- 
ing. I landed twenty-two hundred men. It was a beautiful, 
smooth sea when we landed ; but a storm was coming on, and 
within eight hours after we began landing, the surf rolled so 
high upon that beach that no man could get on or off. Not a 
gun had been lauded, save boat howitzers. I sent the ablest 
engineer oflScer that I know, General Weitzel, accompanied by 
Lieutenant-Colonel Comstock, engineer of the staff of General 
Grant, who had been detailed by the Lieutenant-General him- 
self to go with me upon this expedition, and who did go. 

GENERAL WEITZEL AND COLONEL COMSTOCK, ENGINEERS ON GENERAL 
grant's STAFF, OPPOSE AN ASSAULT. 

I sent those two officers on shore, and they both reported 
to me that the face of the fort was uninjured, and that, in their 
judgment, it was useless to assault. Judge, then, whether I 
was derelict in my duty to my soldiers and to the country, and 
whether I ought to be hounded down, and a price almost set 
upon my head, like a wolf, because I did not order an assault 
which two of the best engineer officers in the United States 
advised me not to make, and in reference to which one of them 
said to me (I use his very expression), " If you order it, Gen- 
eral, it will be murder." 

SUCH AN ASSAULT WOULD HAVE BEEN MURDER. 

Suppose I had made that assault, after those well-instructed 
officers had advised me against it, and it had failed, ought not 
I to have been tried for murder ? And I should have been 
guilty of that crime in the sight of my God, and in the eyes of 



21 



every honest man. Every one would have had a right to join 
in the cry in that case, "Ah ! he was a volunteer General ; he 
would not take the good advice offered hioi by well-instructed 
army officers. Rash fool ! see the result ! " 

You, sir, who had lost a brother ; you, madam, who had lost 
a son, in such an assault, — could I have looked you in the face 
if I had ordered it ? 

GENERAL BUTLER WENT TO WILMINGTON UNDER ORDERS. 

Again, it has been said that I was not to go with the Expe- 
dition; that it was to be commanded by General Weitzeh 
Upon that question I might shelter myself under the fact, that 
the Department under my command was the Department of Vir- 
ginia and North Carolina, and that the operations were within 
my Department, and so I had a right to go. But I scorn all 
subterfuge or indirection. I accompanied the expedition with 
the full knowledge and consent of General Grant, verbally 
given. Nay, more : if you will examine his order for the 
Expedition, to me, you will see that he says : — " The execution 
of the details of this order is intrusted to you, and the subor- 
dinate officers under your comrnand,^^ — not to General 
Weitzel alone. 

GENERAL GRANT HAS NEVER SAID TO GENERAL BUTLER HE WAS NOT 
TO COMMAND THE EXPEDITION. 

Still farther : As I have said, Lieutenant-Colonel Comstock, 
engineer of General Grant's staff, was, by myself, in person, 
detailed to go with me upon that expedition, and left General 
Grant's Headquarters, to go with me down the river, in the 
same boat when I started on the Expedition. Again : I lay at 
Fortress Monroe from the 9th of December till the 14th, 
receiving frequent telegrams from General Grant, which have 
been published, while my answers have been' suppressed. If 
you will read those telegrams, you will see that each and every 
one of them says, when will you get off; when will ^'your 



22 

Expedition " sail ; and, though I have had frequent conversa- 
tions with General Grant upon this, for me, unhappy Expedi- 
tion, yet never, by letter, dispatch, or by word, has General 
Grant intimated to me that he did not expect me to accompany 
the expedition, or chide me for going with it ; and, last of all, 
on the 20th day of December, while I lay in Beaufort Harbor, 
as commander of the expedition, 1 sent a report of progress 
to General Grant, which he forwarded to Washington, without 
a word of dissent that I was not the duly authorized com- 
mander of the Expedition. 



GENERAL BUTLER DID WHAT GENERAL WEITZEL ADVISED, WHO 
IS NOT BLAMED. 

The first intimation, from any quarter, that I ever had that 
I was not properly there, was, when I read in the New York 
Herald an endorsement upon my official report — which 
endorsement is in the handwriting of a staff officer of General 
Grant, and was not filed in the War Office till six days after 
General Grant's letter went to the President, asking for my 
relief upon other grounds than any action of mine in regard to 
the Wilmington Expedition, but which reasons I am not per- 
mitted to state to you — and five days after my farewell order 
to the Army of the James, the context of which may have been 
misunderstood and possibly given ofiFence. 

Besides, what was done there was exactly what General 
Weitzel advised. Why was it worse for me to do what General 
Weitzel advised, and thought right to be done, than it would 
have been for him to do the same thing himself if he had been 
there alone ? Answer me this, and I will take the blame. 

Now, let us see what it is to assault a fort j let us see what 
the Commanding General or Admiral has to do in such a case. 
At Fort Fisher the Admiral was on board his vessel; I was 
on mine quite as near the fort as he was, and that was not at 
all too near for«either of us. (Laughter.) 



23 



BUTLER HAD EVERY MOTIVE TO MAKE THE ASSAULT BUT ONE. 

Upon such an occasion the only duty of the commanding 
officer, standing at a safe distance, with his glass in his hand, 
is to pass his eye over the whole field, and, when he thinks the 
time has come, to say to his men: Forward ! make the assault ! 
Now, certainly it does not require much personal courage in a 
man to give such an order; but it does require some little 
courage to follow the dictates of one's own judgment and save 
the lives of his men, when that judgment tells him that to order 
an assault would be to sacrifice them. This is indeed trial ; 
this is temptation. At Fort Fisher I did my duty ; and, as 
God lives and I live, if it had all to be repeated, with all the 
knowledge I now have, even with the stream of obloquy pour- 
ing upon my head, as it has poured ever since, I would do so 
again, if He would give me strength in answer to my prayer, 
" Lead me not into temptation," to act according to the dictates 
of my conscience and judgment; for there was every tempta- 
tion to make the assault at Fort Fisher, and thus take the 
chance to win honor and glory at the sacrifice of my men, and 
none to forbear to make it and come away. (Great cheering.) 



INTRENCHING ON THE BEACH WOULD HAVE BEEN WORSE THAN 

USELESS. 

But some gentleman may say : Why, having determined not 
to make the* assault, did you not stay there and intrench ? For 
three reasons. Let us examine them in a few minutes. But, 
first, bear in mind that I have not gone into the newspapers in 
explanation of this subject — I have not been Porter or re- 
Porter of it again and again. (Laughter.) No; I have come 
home to my neighbors, whose hands I have to take in friend- 
ship, with whom I must live, whose children are to grow up 
with mine, and here I make the explanations that I have to 
make to them, caring not a rappee what is thought about the 
matter elsewhere. I have encountered worse storms than this 



24 



before, and have lived through them, and I shall live through 
this also. (" Good," " Good," and cheers.) 

Now, then, why did I not stay upon the beach ? In the first 
place, I had made only a partial landing of one-third of- my 
men, and none of my artillery. The sea rose so high that no 
more men or guns could be landed ; and you will see that the 
rebel General Whiting, in his Report, states that a gi*eat storm 
came up that night which injured his garrison very much, the 
garrison having been under arms all night to meet our approach. 



THE NAVY HAVING EXPENDED ALMOST THEIR LAST SHOT AND SHELL, 
WERE USELESS FOR EIGHTEEN DAYS. 

I put on shore 2,200 men, and eight hours afterward the 
storm was so severe that I could not get a gun, or even a box 
of bread, on shore, except by heading the latter up tight in a 
cask and sending it ashore on a raft. Again, if you will look 
in one of Admiral Porter's last Reports you will see that he 
says, " having expended in the bombardment almost the last 
shot a,nd shell which I had with me, I found it necessary to go 
back to Beaufort to get a new supply." I should have looked 
very well, would I not, planting myself on that beach with a 
handful of men, with a body of the enemy behind me — Hoke's 
division from Richmond, larger than my whole army — my only 
support being a navy without ammunition, as useless and idle 
" as a painted ship upon a painted ocean." It took Admiral 
Porter until the 14th of January, eighteen days, to get back 
from Beaufort with his new supply of ammunition ; and if my 
troops had staid there and waited for him, what do you sup- 
pose would have happened to us during the time that he was 
away ? 

But again, if nothing was to be gained by it, what was the 
use of staying there at all and hazarding my men ? I had no 
siege train, and yet the Lieutenant.General agrees that my 
preparations and instructions were all correct. I could not 
besiege the fort; I had only twelve light guns, and I had 



25 

seventeen heavy guns bearing down upon me from the fort ; 
therefore I could not besiege. 

ARMY COULD NOT STOP BLOCKADE RUNNING — A LANDING COULD 
ALWAYS BE EFFECTED WITHOUT THE LOSS OF A MAN. 

What, then, could I do ? Perhaps you will say, that I might 
have stayed there and tried to stop up the river by opening my 
guns upon the blockade runners, as they passed up and down 
the river, and I know it seems so from the map ; but there was 
a mile and a half of marsh between my guns and the river ; 
and notwithstanding all that I could have done, the enemy 
could have reinforced and provisioned Fort Fisher at pleasure 
and landed men on all sides of me, and the blockade runners 
could have passed backward and forward almost as freely as 
the rebel rams passed up and down the James River the other 
day, in spite of the navy. (Laughter.) What else could I 
have done ? Ought I to have stayed there and maintained a 
landing, so that troops could be landed again ? The fact is, 
I saw that at any time, when there was a smooth sea, a landing 
could easily be effected under cover of the guns of the navy, 
and you remember that General Terry landed his troops with- 
out the loss of a man. What, then, was the use of my staying 
there ? There was none. But, besides, Hoke's division was 
there (I captured sixty-five of them), and if I had staid there 
I would have been exposed to the overwhelming attack, and 
lost my men without benefit to the service. Besides, by stay- 
ing there I only kept the enemy there; by going away, the 
enemy went away, supposing the attack to be abandoned, and 
thus we found no sufficient force to oppose General Terry. 

FORT FISHER HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH GENERAL BUTLER's RELIEF 
FROM HIS COMMAND. 

And now, fellow-citizens, let me state, speaking with the full 
knowledge that what I say is to be spread broadcast over the 
country, that I am here to-day on the written letter of the 



26 

Lieutenant-General to the President for my relief, in which 
letter no word is said of Fort Fisher ; nor is there anything 
alleged against me in relation to the Wilmington Expedition, 
as the reason for my being here now, instead of under the 
leaky roof of my log cabin, about seven miles from Richmond, 
where I have spent most of the winter up to this time. I 
repeat it, no word is said of Fort Fisher, no word is said of 
Wilmington, no blame on account of Wilmington is laid upon 
me in that letter, asking for my relief. " Why I am here I can- 
not tell you now, because I am not permitted to give the 
reasons until it shall please the War Department to let them 
be published. I have applied to have those reasons published; 
but the application has not yet been granted ; and in the mean- 
time, as I am not Porter, I shall not sound my own trumpet, at 
least against orders. (Laughter and applause.) 

HE CLAIMS TO BE THE HERO OF BETHEL AND FISHER, BUT NOT THE 
HERO OF THE DISASTERS OF BULL RUN, SEVEN PINES, CHICKA- 
HOMINY, FREDERICKSBURG, CHANCELLORSVILLE, THE WILDERNESS, 
AND COAL HARBOR. 

I repeat, then, I claim the credit, I claim the glory, of not 
having assaulted Fort Fisher. I understand that there are 
those who were among my old friends in politics, but who 
unfortunately, have lately got upon the other side, who sneer 
at me as the " Hero of Big Bethel and Fort Fisher." I accept 
the title. They do me honor overmuch. What was Big 
Bethel? It was a skirmish in which twenty-five men were 
killed and wounded. But Big Bethel was not Bull Run ; Big 
Bethel was not Fair Oaks ; Big Bethel was not Seven Pines ; 
Big Bethel was not the Chickahominy. Big Bethel was a 
failure, but it was no disaster. No West Point General com- 
manded there. I claim credit for this, that when we of the 
volunteer army of the United States make failures we do not 
make disasters. Stop a moment, and compare the battles I 
have named with Big Bethel. Why, at these there were more 
men slauorhtered and homes made desolate than there were 



27 

leaves on the trees in the forest around Big Bethel — not to 
be numbered. 

But I am the hero of Fort Fisher, too. Well, Fort Fisher 
was not Fredericksburg; Fort Fisher was not Chancellors- 
ville ; Fort Fisher was not the Wilderness ; Fort Fisher was 
not Coal Harbor. 

NO VOLUNTEER GENERAL COMMANDED AT PETERSBURG. 

A volunteer General commanded at Fort Fisher at each 
attack; one was without result, but no disaster: the last was 
a success; all honor to General Terry and'his brave volunteer 
soldiers. 

Again : it is charged upon us that we did not make so big a 
hole in the Dutch Gap Canal as we ought to have made. It 
may be that we did not — although Dutch Gap Canal was a 
success — make so large a hole there as was made by the 
explosion of the mine at Petersburg, last summer ; but, thank 
God, neither did we fill uselessly that hole up with American 
dead, until it ran blood. (Renewed applause.) 

DISASTERS ARE RESERVED TO WEST POINT GENERALS AND THE ARMY 
OF THE POTOMAC. 

I am, therefore, content ; nay, I claim to be the hero of the 
comparatively bloodless attacks on Big Bethel, and the wholly 
bloodless failure of Fort Fisher ; and I do not claim to be the 
hero of Fredericksburg, of Chancellorsville, of the Chicka- 
hominy, of Fair Oaks, of the Wilderness, of Coal Harbor, nor 
of that charnel-house of useless dead in the mine before Peters- 
burg. I am prepared to take the issue ; and, hereafter, fellow- 
citizens, when you bear me to that little enclosure, on the 
other side of the river, which I hope for as my last resting- 
place, I pray you put over me for my epitaph : — Here lies the 
General who saved the lives of his soldiers at Big Bethel and 
Fort Fisher, and who never commanded the Army of the 
Potomac. I ask for nothing else. (Great applause.) 



28 



A LITTLE FROTH IS BLOWN AWAY. 

My connection being severed with the Army of the James, 
the telegraph informs us that it is to be incorporated with the 
Army of the Potomac ; and its history, as a distinct organiza- 
tion, has ceased, probably forever. Of the wisdom of that 
incorporation, I will express no opinion. And, mark, I have 
criticised the act of no man — I beg your pardon — I have 
criticised no army man ; I have defended myself, explained my 
own acts, and contrasted them with others ; they may be right 
while I was wrong, although I have thought fit, in the course of 
my remarks, to blow off, with a breath, the froth which is 
always the accompaniment of lively porter. (Laughter and 
applause.) 

OUR DUTY IS TO PROSECUTE THE WAR VIGOROUSLY. 

And, now, passing from that which is personal to my own 
actions, you would, perhaps, desire that I should say something 
upon the prospects of the country in the future. Mark me, my 
friends, whatever happens to me will only incite me to renewed 
efforts in behalf of the country. If she wants my services, at 
any and at all times, in any capacity, however humble, they 
shall be as freely rendered in the future as in the past. And 
whatever mistakes I may have made, whatever mistakes other 
Generals have made, whatever mistakes the Administration 
has made, it is not for us to remember these, or allow them, 
for a moment, to affect our action ; it is the country we serve, 
it is the Union to which our allegiance is due ; and, however 
men in power to-day may make mistakes, it is no reason why 
we should hold back a single effort in support of the war. 

THERE IS NO HOPE OF PEACE TILL THE REBEL ARMY IS BROKEN. 

If all men had been perfect, this Rebellion had not existed. 
It was the imperfection of men that brought it upon us, and 
through imperfect men it must be brought to an end. There- 
fore, let every man gird himself for still greater efforts. Do 



29 

not be carried away by any delusive cry of Peace ! Peace ! for 
the time of peace is not yet come. All attempts to get peace 
by negotiation, until the army of General Lee either capitulates 
or is whipped, is as useless as to attempt to break down the 
stubborn spirit of the child who successfully resists your 
authority. Therefore, this cry of '' Peace " should lull no man 
into security. 

WITH GOOD SOLDIERS, OUR SUCCESS NOT DOUBTFUL. 

See to it, that the armies are filled up ; see to it, that 
recruiting goes on — of good men, too — men who will stay in 
the army after they get there — such men as you send from 
Lowell — good men, true men. 

I see no desire for peace, on the part of the rebels, in the 
appointing of General Lee Generalissimo ; nor in the recent 
raid by the rebel iron-clads down the James River upon the 
communications of General Grant. These are not peaceful 
movements ; they mean war, and bitter war, for another, and, 
I trust, a last campaign. But, though I speak thus of the cry 
of peace, I have no doubt of our ultimate success. 

THE REBELS WILL ARM THEIR SLAVES NO PEACE SAVE ONE JUST 

TO WHITE AND BLACK. 

Neither have I any doubt that the rebel masters will arm 
their slaves. Let me tell you, the negro makes a very excel- 
lent soldier. There is little doubt, on the other hand, that the 
negro soldier of the rebels will not fight the negro soldier on 
our side ; and we have the advantage of being first in the field. 
Even discipline will not bring him to this; although it may 
bring him to fight the white soldiers of our side. This move- 
ment will be the last, the final, blow struck by the Rebellion, 
and, in my judgment, that blow will be unsuccessful ; and from 
this we shall have a lasting peace, provided we deal justly by 
all men, white and black. (Loud applause.) And, upon no 
other terms, my friends, can you have peace. Fair play, jus- 



30 

tice, equality before the law, for black and white ; a peace on 
that basis will stand ; without that basis^ it will never stand. 

PRESIDENT LINCOLN PATEIOTIC AND ABLE. 

Therefore, my friends, I say again, not looking to peace, but 
to the ultimate result of the next campaign, gird on your 
armor, do everything you can to sustain the Government, and 
to sustain the President, as the head of the Government. He 
is honest, patriotic, capable, and able, and will do all he can 
in his position for the country (loud and long continued 
applause); and if his officers execute as well as he conceives, 
we shall have no difficulty. 

BOUNTY SYSTEM RUINOUS. 

Now, then, one thing further : I would oppose, in every way, 
so far as my voice and vote would go, the present method of 
filling up our armies, by offering very large bounties. These 
bounties do not get the best men. This is a universal rule. 
The expenditure for these bounties is putting a load of taxa- 
tion upon every laboring man, that he will feel deeply and 
strongly hereafter, and his children's children after him. 

BY BOUNTIES NOT THE CONSTITUTIONAL WAY TO RAISE MEN. 

We have swung away from the Constitution and the laws as 
established by the fathers in raising our armies. The Consti- 
tution provides that every man between the ages of eighteen 
and forty-five shall be enrolled, and that as many as are neces- 
sary shall be drafted for the defence of the country, precisely 
as the law drafts as many as are necessary to serve on juries, 
and for other purposes of government; and when we swing 
away from that, we give up the doctrines of the fathers : we 
are beginning now to reap the fruits of this policy in the piling 
up of debts, which will greatly embarrass us hereafter. 
Therefore, let us look to it that, in filling up our armies, we get 
away from this system of bounties. 



31 



THREE THOUSAND MEN FROM THE ARMY HOLDS NEW YORK QUIET. 

Therefore, my friends, it was, that on another occasion, and 
in connection with another bloodless expedition of the Army 
of the James, to which I did not call your attention, I had the 
honor to make a proposition to the country. Three thousand 
men of the Army of the James went to New York, about the 
first of November last, where they said to the mob of that city, 
" Peace, be still ! " and everything was as quiet there in the 
heat of an excited election as it is here and now in this peace- 
ful meeting. (Applause.) 

THE PROPOSITION OF AMNESTY A WISE ONE. 

Then and there, fellow-citizens, I had the honor to say that 
I would offer to the rebels full and free pardon and amnesty 
for the past, if they would lay down their arms and submit to 
the laws. Even that proposition was misunderstood. I pro- 
posed to give them a full and free pardon, if they would submit 
to the laws. Why ? Because, whatever the result of the war 
may be, you will never catch the leaders of the Rebellion, and 
the country will never come to the point of punishing those 
who are not leaders; and therefore you may as well make a 
virtue of necessity. But, it has been said, you put in -your 
proposition nothing looking to the emancipation of the negro. 

SLAVERY IS DEAD. 

But when I said, " submit to the laws," I believed slavery 
dead, and assumed, as a lawyer, and believed then, as I believe 
now, that the Proclamation of President Lincoln, in the circum- 
stances under which it was issued, declaring the negro free, is 
the law of the land ; and those who doubted and cavilled upon 
that point, were men who were not as strong of faith as I, and 
who, therefore, did not understand it. 

I said, further, if these men do not submit to tie laws, and 
come back to take their places under the Government, in a 
given time, they forfeit all rights. 



32 



LANDS OF REBELS SHOULD BE GIVEN TO OUR SOLDIERS. 

If they would submit, all necessity of raising any more men, 
by draft or by bounty, and burdening the people with heavy 
taxes and debt, was obviated. If they would not submit, my 
proposition was — instead of taxing ourselves anymore to give 
bounties for men to take and then run away with — to say to 
the South, " These lands of yours shall be the bounties of our 
soldiers, when they shall have earned them, to be enjoyed by 
them as an inheritance to them and their heirs forever." Such 
a proposition would save us from future trouble. It would 
give a loyalty to the South, which would rebel no more forever 

HE WOULD SAVE THE NORTH FROM BURDENSOME TAXATION. 

Those who object to confiscating the property of the rebels 
for the benefit of loyal soldiers, wish to see the war go on, and 
have no desire for a sterling and lasting peace. But give the 
rebel land and property to the loyal soldier, whether white, 
black, or gray, as a reward for taking it from those who have 
made it a curse to the nation, instead of the blessing which 
God intended it to be, and you will be crowded with soldiers to 
end the war at once. Thus, my friends, I may be radical, I may 
be in advance on this question, but again I repeat it, that every 
man may ponder upon it, — Let us, instead of giving bounties 
which makes every man we send to the army cost a thousand 
dollars, and every regiment cost a million, besides their arms 
and equipments, let us take that which we are fighting for, and 
the property and lands of the South the bounties of our soldier, 
instead of paying them ourselves. 

THE WAR WILL END IN A YEAR, AND PROSPERITY BE RESTORED TO 
LOWELL AND THE COUNTRY. 

Mr. Mayor, I have, perhaps, too discursively and too much at 
length, and in rather a different manner from the accustomed 
course taken on such occasions towards those who have the 
kindness to honor me, gone over past events in which I have 



33 

been engaged during my absence. I was ordered to report 
at Lowell; and I know no better way to report to you than 
face to face, as I have done. More than that, sir ; coming out 
with my fellow-citizens to do me honor, I felt that you had a 
right to know whether your welcome home to your neighbor 
was well bestowed. I knew you would look with kindly pity 
on my errors of judgment. I knew that you would pass over 
anything wrong coming from the head alone ; and I knew the 
greeting I should get if you knew the heart was right ; there- 
fore I determined that you should know exactly the manner in 
which I had attempted to do my duty, and I came back to you 
as you knew the man that went away from you. 

I hope that the bravery of the gallant Terry, whom I regard 
as my brother, and in whose success I rejoice as in that of a 
brother, will take Wilmington, and help to bring you the 
speedy return of your former industry and prosperity. I 
think we may say with safety, that we shall be able, in another 
year, to resume the cotton manufactories of the city under as 
favorable auspices as before. 



LOWELL ALWAYS FIRST IN THE FIELD. 

While I am with you, here at home, or abroad, never has the 
interest and welfare of our city been other than the subject 
of my thoughts ; so much so, I believe, that it has come to 
be somewhat a reproach to me that I gather round me all 
Lowell men whenever I can, and wherever I may be. It is 
quite true. I know them thoroughly; I know their good 
qualities ; I know their capabilities ; and I am willing always 
that our work shall be examined. From the 19 th of April, 
when the Lowell Regiment went through Baltimore and came 
back into Baltimore — bringing peace to that city and freedom 
to Maryland — to the time a Lowell Regiment went to New 
Orleans — to the time they returned, under their gallant 
Colonel, — I know how they wrought and fought. The work of 
3 



34 

the men of Lowell will bear examination abroad, as it will at 
home. 

Mr. Mayor, returning to you, whom I have been proud to 
call my friend for almost a quarter of a century, — and to you, 
my friends and neighbors, coming here to greet my arrival 
home, — let me say, in conclusion, be pleased to accept my most 
heartfelt thanks for your kindness, and allow me to bid you a 
kind, cordial, thankful good night. 



APPENDIX. 



BUTLER'S AND TERRY'S ATTACKS COMPARED. 

[From the Special Correspondent of the New York Tribune.] 

Washington, January 19, 1865. 

The success of General Terry's attack upon Fort Fisher, 
following 80 quickly upon General Butler's withdrawal from 
before that work, may have hurried the just judgments of some 
men away from a comparison of the diflferent conditions of the 
two attempts. They are as different as the results are dif- 
ferent. 

I. General Butler started on his enterprise with 6,500 
troops, and six pieces of field artillery, the heaviest being 
12-pounders. 

General Terry started with between 12,000 and 15,000 
troops, from the Army of the James, from the Nineteenth 
Corps, and from Lew. Wallace's force. He was to have the 
help of a column of two thousand sailors and marines. He 
had also a siege train. 

n. Butler landed with only two thousand two hundred men 
(2,200), and became immediately engaged with a force of the 
enemy, posted in his rear, up the Peninsula. It is now 
admitted that this rebel force was as strong as Butler's entire 
command. 

Terry landed eight thousand men in such complete security, 



36 

that, as the Baltimore American says, " tliej were overjoyed 
to again get from shipboard, and the bands were soon playing, 
and the men running about and rolling in the warm sand, like 
school-children enjoying a holiday. Not a sign of an enemy 
could be seen in any direction." 

III. Within eight hours after Butler began to land, the sea 
was so rough that he could not re-embark the troops he had 
got ashore, nor send more to their support. He could not get 
ashore a single piece of his artillery, nor tents, nor provisions. 

General Terry landed in a calm. The Baltimore American 
says : — 

" The transports were enabled to go within about half a mile of the 
shore, and they were soon surrounded by not less than two hundred 
boats. The several tugs in attendance joined in the work, carrying the 
soldiers to within a hundred yards of the beach, and then transferring 
them to the small boats. Tents and camp-equipage were also landed, 
with several days' provisions for the entire force, eight thousand strong." 

IV. Butler had to go to fighting as soon as he got ashore. 
Terry landed quietly on Friday ; had all Saturday to establish 

a line of breastworks, with four thousand men in it, to prevent 
the approach of rebel reinforcements from Wilmington ; and 
had till half-past three o'clock on Sunday afternoon to get 
ready to assault the fort. 

Y. The fleet co-operated with Terry, and enabled him to 
throw this line of defense across the Peninsula, to protect an 
assault he was going to make with just five times as many men 
as Butler had to assault with. The Baltimore American 
records : — 

"An order was received from the Admiral, to proceed in shore to cover 
the encampments of the troops from any assault by Bragg, from Wil- 
mington. Should he come, Captain Glisson will, with one hundred and 
twenty-three guns at his command, give him a warm reception." 



37 

Butler had but one thousand two hundred men to assault 
with, having left one thousand as a thin line of defence against 
an attack in his rear. 

VI. The fire of the fleet in the first Expedition had done 
the fort no injury whatever, and had disabled but two of its 
seventy-two guns. 

In the second Expedition, as Secretary Stanton says : — 

" The sea-front of the fort had been greatly damaged and broken by a 
continuous and terrible fire of the fleet for three days." 

Admiral Porter also says : — 

" It was soon apparent that the iron vessels had the best of it ; trav- 
erses began to disappear, and the southern angle of Fort Fisher began 
to look very dilapidated. The guns were silenced, one after another, 
and only one heavy gun in the southern angle kept up its fire." 

* * * "By sunset, the fort was reduced to a pulp — every gun 
was silenced, by being injured or covered up with the earth, so that they 
could not work." 

VII. In Butler's attack on Fort Fisher, the fire of the fleet 
did not injure or weaken the land face of the fort. 

In Terry's attack, the fire of the fleet dismounted and injured 
all of the guns on the land side, where Terry was to attack, 
and all of the guns on the sea side. 

VIII. Notwithstanding the injury which the fort had received 
on both sides, and the silencing of all its guns on both sides. 
Porter's two thousand sailors and marines, who assaulted on 
the sea side, were driven right back, and the three brigades 
that attacked on the land side were unable to enter the fort, 
after two hours of determined fighting, with all the help the 
fleet could give them. Of this help, Secretary Stanton says : — 

" By a skillfully directed fire thrown into the traverses, one after 
another, as they were occupied by the enemy, Admiral Porter con- 



38 



tribated to the success of the assaulting column. By signals between 
himself and General Terry, at brief intervals, this fire was so well 
managed as to damage the enemy without injury to our own troops." 

IX. Butler, with only two thousand two hundred men ashore, 
wisely and dutifully declined to assault Fort Fisher, uninjured 
by the fire of the fleet. 

Injured, and its fire silenced, Terry could not take it with 
six thousand men (troops, sailors, and marines), after two 
hours' fighting. He had to put in Abbot's Brigade, of three 
thousand fresh men, to finish the job ; and it took from five 
o'clock till ten for the combined nine thousand to do it. Sec- 
retary Stanton says: — 

"The works were so constructed that every traverse afforded the 
enemy a new defensive position, from whence they had to be driven. 
They were seven in number, and the fight was carried on, from traverse 
to traverse, for seven hours." 

X. Porter's assaulting column of sailors and marines was 
much larger than the whole column that General Butler sent 
to the assault. It attacked, as Secretary Stanton says, " the 
least difficult side '' of the fort; yet, it was, as Secretary Stan- 
ton says, " after a short conflict, checked, and driven back in 
disorder." And, yet, they were perfectly brave men. So 
were the three thousand heroes of Curtis's, Pennypacker's, and 
Bell's Brigades, who could not, unaided, get in on the other 
side ; although, as Secretary Stanton says, the sailors and 
marines " performed the very useful part of diverting the 
attention of the enemy, and weakening the resistance to their 
attack." And so were Butler's men brave, and so were their 
leaders ; but the bravest men can't do impossible things ; and 
it was a totally impossible thing for Butler's twelve hundred 
men to take that fort. 

XI. Had it not been for the co-operation of the fleet, in its 



39 

fire, it is reasonably certain that the assault bj Terry would 
have disastrously failed. Secretary Stanton has, in these few 
words, described the amazing strength of the fort : — " Work 
unsurpassed, if ever equalled, in strength, and which General 
Beauregard, a few days before, pronounced impregnable." 

The Baltimore American pictures it thus : — 

" Fort Fisher is the largest and most formidable earthwork of the war. 
It embraces not less than fifteen acres of land, and its erection has been 
a work of great labor, its height being not less than thirty feet. Your 
readers may form some idea of its dimensions when I assure you that it 
is, at least, six times the size of Fort Federal Hill, while it has a dozen 
or more smaller batteries extending along the coast south of it to the 
Mound, a distance of nearly a mile. This Mound, which has two case- 
mates in it, with heavy guns, is said to be fifty feet high. Instead of 
being an earthwork with embrasures, the fort consists of a series of 
mound-like bomb-proofs, seventeen of which half face the sea approach 
to the work, between each of which a gun is mounted. It is so situated 
that these guns command not only the sea, but can be used as well to 
resist a land approach along the beach. Each of these hillocks, which 
are about thirty feet high, is a bomb-proof, into which the men who work 
the guns can escape at will." 

XII. If the disposition to co-operate with Butler had existed 
in the fleet, it could not have persistently co-operated with his 
assault, if he had persistently made one; for when Butler was 
about to move to the attack, Captain Breeze, of the navy. 
Admiral Porter's Chief of Stafl", informed General Weitzel and 
Colonel Comstock that the fleet had but one hour's supply of 
ammunition left ! 

XIII. Bearing in mind the formidable strength of the fort — 
bearing in mind that Terry's attack had the benefit of all the 
experience derived from the failure of Butler — bearing in 
mind the want of co-operation between the fleet and Butler's 
army — bearing in mind the immense diff'erence in the numbers 
used in the diff"erent assaults — especially bearing in mind that 



40 

the fire of the fleet swept the way clean for the advance of 
Terry's soldiers from traverse to traverse — there is not a 
candid man in America who will not say that General Butler's 
withdrawal from his assault on Fort Fisher was an act of 
soldierly duty ; as honorable to him as, under different circum- 
stances, was General Terry's persistence in the second assault 
an act of soldierly duty, honorable to him, — and honorable to 
the brave men he commanded. 



SPEECH OF HON. GEORGE S. BOUTWELL, 



IN DEFENCE OP 



MAJOR-GENERAL BENJ. F. BUTLER, 

In the House of Representatives, Jan. 24, 1865. 



It is my fortune, Mr. Speaker, and not ill-fortune, that I 
represent the District of Massachusetts in which General 
Butler resides. When the gentleman from New York [Mr. 
Brooks], on a day, now some time since passed, charged upon 
General Butler the crime of being a " gold robber," I paid no 
heed to it. I had seen, from the commencement of this war, 
that secessionists, and men whose sympathies are with the 
purposes of the secessionists, had not hesitated, whenever and 
wherever they could obtain the ear of the public, to arraign 
whomsoever they might, upon whom, in any degree, in their 
estimation, rested the crime of being patriots. I remembered 
that General Butler had been the first man to expound to this 
country and to the world the true doctrine as to the rights of 
the negro race on this continent, and to expose to mankind the 
course necessary to be pursued in order that this Rebellion 
might be crushed. I regarded the observation of the gentle- 
tleman from New York as an observation made in harmony 
with those continued and oft-repeated declarations made by 
secessionists in the South, and secessionists and their sympa- 
thizers in the North. I did not properly appreciate the 
circumstance that he spoke from this floor; that he was here 
shielded by the Constitution ; that he had, in a certain sense, 



42 



the ear of the American public, and, perhaps, of the world ; 
and that what he uttered went upon the records of this House, 
and became a part of the history of the country. 

General Butler, being the subject of that observation, took 
a diflferent view entirely of the matter ; and when the remark 
was brought to his notice, he addressed a letter to the gentle- 
man from New York. That letter has been read before this 
House, and its contents are known to the country generally. 
If it had been what the gentleman from New York assumed 
upon this floor that it was, a challenge to him to mortal com- 
bat, if he had not been overwhelmed by his fears he would 
have rejoiced that that day for which he longed, the day for 
the reconstruction of this Union as it was, had approached, in 
that the assassination was attempted, in one part of this city, 
of a member, for words spoken in debate, and that there was 
a challenge to another — reviving recollections which must 
have been grateful to him of those days when the Union did 
exist " as it was," and there was no freedom of speech upon 
this floor, or upon the floor of the other House of Congress. 
But his fears overcame entirely the tendency which he other- 
wise would have had to rejoice in the restoration of the palmy 
days when assassination and duelling were tolerated in the 
capital of the country. But those days are passed ; and now, 
that there are no longer plantation masters here, or to be 
represented here, I trust that plantation manners also will 
depart from us. 

It was the last of the designs of General Butler to challenge 
the gentleman from New York to mortal combat. The letter 
to the gentleman was dated on the 20th day of January. On 
that same day, General Butler addressed a letter to the Speaker 
of this House, which was not sent. I have examined General 
Butler's letter-book, and I find that the letter to the Speaker 
anticipates, in order, the letter addressed to the gentleman 
from New York ; and if there were no other evidence, it would 
sufficiently explain the purpose which General Butler had in 



43 



view. I send that letter to the Clerk, and ask that it be read 
to the House. 

The Clerk read, as follows : — 

"Washington, January 20, 1S65. 

Sir, — I take leave, most respectfully, to request you to lay 
before the House of Representatives this note, in order to 
avail myself of the only means of redress known to me without 
breach of the privileges of the honorable House. 

Mr. James Brooks, a member of the House, on the 6th of 
January, is reported to have used, in debate, the following 
language : — 

" I am bound to say, that an effort was made by the Federal 
Government, during the pendency of the late Presidential 
election, to control the city of New York, by sending there a 
bold robber, in the person of a Major-General of the United 
States. Robber as he was of the public Treasury, and Major- 
General of the United States as he was, he dared not exercise 
the power given to him, to attempt to control the actions of 
those whom the gentleman calls thieves and robbers in my 
own city." 

The correctness of the report of which, I have taken meas- 
ures to ascertain. 

Here, then, is a charge made, upon the responsibility of the 
position Mr. Brooks occupies, of very high crimes and misde- 
meanors, alleged to be committed by an officer of the United 
States, which, if he is guilty, ought to be visited by the most 
condign punishment. 

If the charge is calumnious and false, then it is due to the 
national honor that it should be unstained by the imputation 
of the employment of such a person in its service in high 
official position; and it would seem also due to the dignity of 
the House that a public slanderer should be rebuked. 

The Constitution and the Laws of the United States, and 
Parliamentary usage, give to the officer thus charged no means 



44 

of redress through the ordinary Courts of Law, or any other 
mode known among honorable menj therefore, appealing to 
the sense of justice of the honorable House, I respectfully ask 
that an investigation may be ordered o he charges so pre- 
ferred against me by a member of the House, through a 
Committee of its members, with the most ample powers of 
inquiry. 

Further: In order not to embarrass the investigation by 
confining it to the single charge made, I desire to have put in 
issue every official act of my public life which can, in any way, 
be supposed to affect my official integrity or personal honor, 
and that my accuser have leave to make good his accusation 
before? the Committee of the House, so that if the accused be 
found guilty, proper prosecution may be ordered in the Courts 
for his punishment ; or, if the accusation be found false and 
calumnious, the honorable House may be in position to vindicate 
its own honor and dignity by the due punishment of a public 
calumniator and slanderer. 

I have the honor to be. 

Very respectfully, 

BENJAMIN F. BUTLER. 

Hon. Speaker House of EErRESENTATivEs, Congress of the United States. 

Mr. BouTWELL. That is a copy, from General Butler's letter- 
book, of a letter which he intended to address to the Speaker 
of this House whenever the gentleman from New York should 
have replied to the letter sent to him on the 20th of this 
month. Lest there should be any misunderstanding, I will 
say this in regard to these letters: Up to yesterday, after the 
adjournment of the House, I had never conversed with General 
Butler, or with any friend of his, in reference to any official 
act of his life. As the gentleman from New York was about 
closing his remarks, I went over to the seat of the honorable 
member from Pennsylvania [Mr. Stevens], and said to him, 
that I desired that the House should adjourn before this 



45 

debate closed, and that, to-morrow, I would probably present 
official documents to this House. At that moment, I had no 
knowledge that any official documents existed; but I had 
known General Butler for twenty-five years. I knew his 
faults; I knew his virtues; I knew his failings; I knew his 
capacities ; I knew that, in a transaction involving $50,000, he 
had evidence incontrovertible as to the position he occupied. 
And when I approached him, as I did last evening, without 
any suggestion from him, and reported to him in brief the 
statements that had been made on this floor, and said to him, 
that, if he had any documents to present to the House, I, as 
his Representative, should be happy to be the means of com- 
municating them, he opened his letter-book, and showed to 
me the two letters — the one addressed to the gentleman from 
New York, and the other to the Speaker of the House. He 
said that both were written at the same time ; and they 
appeared on the letter-book in their proper position, only that 
the copy of the letter to the Speaker preceded that of the 
letter to the gentleman from New York. At the same time, I 
had the boldness to meet there Captain Clarke, who was in 
the uniform of the Republic. I know that if he had worn gray 
uniform when he approached the gentleman from New York, 
that gentleman would not have been so affrighted. I asked 
him to state what he knew about the matter. He said : — "I 
wrote the letters at the same time, on the same day, from the 
dictation of General Butler; and they were recorded just as 
they appear." 

A single word now in reference to a matter on which I do 
not propose to spend much time — the affairs at Norfolk. The 
gentleman [Mr. Brooks] did not present, yesterday, any 
evidence whatever as to General Butler's transactions at 
Norfolk. I shall not, therefore, spend much time over it ; but, 
when I approach the greater subject, the House will see, and 
the country will see, that any statement of his, without testi- 
mony, as to the transactions of anybody, cannot be believed by 



46 



the country. I say, from an inquiry this morning, that the 
records of the War Office furnish no testimony whatsoever 
impeaching General Butler's reputation or conduct in refer- 
ence to trade transactions in the District which he has lately 
commanded. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, I come to the testimony in reference to 
the $50,000 transaction in New Orleans. I ask the attention 
of the gentleman from New York to one point, because, when 
I have presented the evidence, I shall put to him a question on 
my own responsibility as a member of this House, as a Repre- 
sentative of a district, as a citizen of this country interested 
somewhat in the reputation of a man who is already historical, 
and who, since the administration of Hastings in India, has had 
a larger command and greater interests of the country placed 
in his hands than almost any other person, and I shall expect a 
definite and distinct answer to that question ; and therefore I 
put him on his guard at this early moment. The question I 
shall put to him is (asking the Clerk first to read the extract 
from the gentleman's speech, which is contained in General 
Butler's letter), whether he reaffirms the statement which he 
made, or whether he retracts it ? And according to the course 
which he takes shall be mine as to some observations which I 
will then submit. 

The gentleman from New York laid before the House yes- 
terday what he calls a " deposition " of one Samuel Smith, 
which turned out to be an affidavit ex parte, and not true at 
that. I have here a letter, signed by the United States Dis- 
trict Attorney at New Orleans, and the United States Marshal, 
dated 12th May, 1864, which, although subsequent to the 
transactions that are now in question, throws some light on 
the character of this charge. I ask the Clerk to read them. 

The Clerk read, as follows : — 



Office of the United States District-Attorney, 
New Orleans, May 12, 1864, 

Sir, — By the last mail I received your note of the 23d ult., 



47 

making inquiry relative to the status of Samuel Smith & Co., 
respecting their loyalty. As I left this city soon after the 
commencement of hostilities, and remained in Washington 
City till May of last year, I cannot speak from personal 
knowledge. Having made diligent inquiry, however, I learn 
that Mr. Smith was a sympathizer with, and an aider and 
abettor of, the Rebellion, while it was in power here. The 
firm were the agents for the confederate loan ; atid their books 
and blanks are still in the upper room of their former banking- 
house, on Camp Street, in this city, — showing their agency, as 
above stated. The general reputation of Mr. S. Smith was 
that of <an enemy of the United States, before the arrival of 
General Butler, and for some time afterward. Andrew W. 
Smith, his only partner, was even more bitter in his disunion 
sentiments. 

My information is derived from gentlemen of the highest 
standing, constant loyalty, and continued residence here 
throughout the Rebellion up to this time. 

If I can be of any service in preventing impositions upon 
the Government, such as I am informed have already been 
practiced by secessionists here representing themselves other- 
wise in Washington, you have but to intimate it. If you wish 
afi&davits of the statement made above with regard to Samuel 
and A. W. Smith, composing the firm of Samuel Smith & Co., 
they shall be forwarded. 

I have the honor to be, 

Your obedient servant, 

RUFUS WAPLES, 

United States District Attorney. 
Hon. Wm. Whiting, Solicitor of the War Department. 

I concur in the correctness of the foregoing statements 
relative to Messrs. Samuel Smith &, Co., from my own per- 
sonal knowledge. 

JAMES GRAHAM, 

United States Marshal. 



48 

Mr. BouTWELL. I have caused that to be read as furnishing 
a basis in evidence for the seizure of the money in question. 
The affidavit of Samuel Smith says: — 

" The statement that ' this gold was condemned by a military 
commission as the proceeds of the robbery of the United States 
mint at New Orleans,' is without a shadow of truth, is utterly 
malicious, and is in every syllable basely false." 

I hold in my hand the order of Major-General Butler, consti- 
tuting a commission. I have also the evidence taken before 
the commission ; also the award of the commission. Although 
the $50,000 was not condemned as being the proceeds of the 
property of the Treasury of the United States, and in that 
respect the statement of Smith is true, it was, nevertheless, 
condemned in consequence of the conduct of Smith in his 
transactions with the Confederate officers at New Orleans, 
I ask that the Clerk shall read the document which I now 
present; but before it is read, I will state that Farragut 
passed the forts at the mouth of the Mississippi River, I think, 
on the 24th day of April. On the 2d day of May, General 
Butler took possession of the city of New Orleans. Although 
I have not the date of the seizure of this money, it was at 
some time between the 2d day of May and the 12th day of 
June, when the order was issued constituting the commission. 

The Clerk read, as follows : — 

New Orleans, June, 1862. 

General, — We have the honor to submit the following report 
of the proceedings, evidences, and findings of the commission 
authorized by the following special order : — 

[Special Order, No. 96.] 

Headquarters Department of the Gulf, 
New Orleans, June 12, 1862. 

A commission composed of General Shepley, military com. 
mander. Dr. W. N. Mercer, and Thomas J. Durant, Esq., of 
New Orleans, is ordered to hear and determine whether there 



49 

is reasonable cause to believe that the specie and property 
seized by the United States in the banking-house of Samuel 
Smith & Co. is the property of the Confederate States, or of 
any department or ofiBce thereof, or whether said specie and other 
property has been used in any way to aid the Confederate 
States, or any ofi&cer thereof, in concealing any property of the 
Confederate States, or whether said Samuel Smith & Co. have 
in any way so acted in behalf of this rebellion as ought to cause 
the further detention .of said specie and other property for 
hearing before the Department at Washington. 

This board to sit at the expense of the parties claimants, 
it having been ordered at their request. Captain Peter 
Haggerty is appointed recorder for the commission. 
By order of General Butler. 

R. S. DAVIS, 

Captain and A. A. A. G. 

In obedience to the above order the board met on the 15th 
of June, at half-past seven o'clock, at the St. Charles Hotel. 

Present : General Shepley, W. N. Mercer, and Thomas J. 
Durant, commission, and Captain P. Haggerty, recorder. 

The parties being present with the witnesses, the claims of 
the United States authorities to hold the property mentioned 
in said order, the admitted facts in relation to said property, 
as well as the reasons for making said claim, were presented 
by Major-General Butler. 

The following affidavit of Marcelin Esnard was then read, 
namely : — 

I, Marcelin Esnard, of lawful age, do depose and say, that, 
on the day Mr. Guirot went away (April 24, 1862,) with the 
specie of the mint, I took $50,000 in gold from Mr. Samuel 
Smith, on his order, which order is exhibited to me here. A 
few days before that (four or five days), Mr. Guirot, having a 
quantity of silver which he wished to change into gold for the 
convenience of carrying away the specie, procured Mr. Smith, 
director of some bank, to have this bank take the silver and 
3 



50 

give gold for it, which the bauk did, and I received it from 
Mr. Smith, as by receipt shown me here, and carried it to Mr. 
Guirot, and he carried it away with him, and on the same day 
gave me the books of the mint, which were captured at my 
house. 

M. ESNARD. 

Then came before me the above-mentioned M, Esnard, and 
swore that he told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but 
the truth, in reference to these proceedings. 

BENJ. P. BUTLER, 

3Iajor- General Commanding. 



And here the government rested their case. 

Messrs. Samuel Smith <fe Co. then proceeded, through A. L. 
Rozier, Esq., to state their side of the case, and recite the 
following statement of Jacob Staub, namely : — 

Jacob Staub, being duly sworn, says that he is the porter of 
the Canal and Banking Company ,• that on or about the 23rd 
of last month, by order of the president of said bank, he 
received from the mint $50,000 in silver coin, ten boxes of 
which, each containing $1000, he placed in the adjoining bank- 
ing-house of Samuel Smith & Co., who were aiding the bank 
in the redemption of their bills, and that Samuel Smith & Co. 
returned to the Canal Bank four of the said boxes, containing 
each $1000, and $6000 in their bills, which they had redeemed; 
the residue he placed in the said Canal Bank ; that during the 
day Mr. Guirot, the assistant treasurer of the mint, called at 
the bank, and he [Jacob] requested Mr. Guirot to send for the 
gold which he had been ordered by the president of the bank 
to deliver to him in exchange for the silver received, which 
Mr. Guirot promised to do. At two o'clock, when the bank 
closed, the gold was not sent for, and he, by order of the 
president, placed it in the banking-house of Samuel Smith & 
Co., who usually kept their banking-house open later in the 



51 

day than the incorporated banks, to be delivered to Mr. Guirot 
when called for. 

JACOB STAUB. 

Sworn and subsci'ibed before me, this day of May, 1862. 

D. F. MITCHELL, 

Justice of the Peace. 



And also called Jacob Staub, who testified as follows, to 
wit: — 

"Am a porter, employed in Canal Bank. We received 
the money in April. An officer of the mint, I think it was, 
said Mr. Guirot sent him with the money. I gave Smith ten 
boxes of it, and the rest was to be used (as small) in paying 
the small notes of the bank. On the 23d, Smith gave four 
boses back to us. Guirot came next day; he said, "Will you 
give me that money in gold ? " I told him I had $50,000 in 
gold, and he could take that; said he would come at two 
o'clock. The gold was rolled into Smith's window, and the 
porter told him it was Guirot's money. On Saturday, the 
19th, we had only silver for an hour or so. On Tuesday 
morning I heard arrangements had been made with the mint 
for the specie. The bank was crowded. I think we got a 
little silver from Mr. Barker's bank. I know that ten t)oxes 
went to Mr. Smith, and that four were returned to us. I think 
the 23d was Wednesday. The silver came in on Tuesday and 
Wednesday ; think we got $50,000 on Wednesday about eleven 
o'clock. Mr. Guirot told me he wanted the gold, and would 
come for it before two o'clock, I saw the gold rolled into 
Smith's; it was done up in bags, and then put in a keg. 
Mr. Guirot did not know that we were going to put it into Mr 
Smith's. On the 22d and 23d, Smith had a pretty large 
amount of gold. I think he sent into our bank a check for 
$37,000; the paying teller and myself did the paying out. I 
did not know that Smith had a large amount out on the 22d. 
I saw him about the* bank three or four times that day, and I 
know that some money was going into Smith's. 



52 

"I cannot tell who brought the large check of Hewitt, Nor- 
ton & Co., or who it was paid to ; I did not know of any other 
large amounts paid to Smith & Co. about that time; I have 
no recollection of paying the large check or setting aside the 
coin to pay it. 

"Bank began to pay specie, Saturday, April 19th,* Monday 
and Tuesday, specie began to run short. On Wednesday, the 
president or cashier told me that money would come from 
the mint. I understood, next morning, from the officers of the 
bank, some more money would come ; gave no receipt for it 
($25,000), which came first; I was not asked for a receipt the 
next day ; I know Mr. Guirot very well ; he came in about 
two hours after we had the specie. I received orders from 
our bank officers to pay to Guirot the amount in gold. He 
came in about eleven o'clock ; did not take it then, but said he 
would come for it at two o'clock. The money we put into 
Mr. Smith's, because he was close by the bank ; I staid that 
day as late as six or seven o'clock, and Mr. Guirot did not 
come ; I think it was the 23d, Wednesday." 

The affidavit of Mr. J. Rathbone, president of the New 
Orleans Canal and Banking Company, was then read, as fol-- 
lows,' to wit : — 

Mr. J. Rathbone, president of the New Orleans Canal 
and Banking Company, being duly sworn, says that Mr. 
Samuel Smith, a director of the bank, called on him on about 
the 22d of April, 1862, to know if the bank would give gold 
for silver, stating that Mr. Guirot, of the mint, was desirous 
of making the exchange ; and that he, on the part of the bank, 
told Mr. Smith that, as the bank had little or no silver, and 
the gold in the vault then ready to pay out was in twenty- 
dollar pieces, it was difficult to pay amounts under twenty 
dollars. The bank would make the exchange to the amount 
it should pay out. Then Mr. Smith told the deponent that 
his firm would redeem the notes of the bank in silver to aid in 
satisfying the run on the bank for the redemption of its notes, 



53 



and that this deponent was informed bj the clerk or porter 
that the bank and Samuel Smith & Co. had thus used of the 
silver to the amount of $50,000, which he ordered handed over 
to Smith & Co., in gold. 

J. RATHBONE. 

Sworn before me, this day of May, 1862. 

D. F. MITCHELL, 

Justice of the Peace. 



Mr. Rathbone was then called as a witness by Samuel Smith 
& Co., and testified as follows : — 

" I am president of the Canal Bank, and did not make any 
arrangement with Guirot for the gold. My impression is, that 
I told some one that I thought it best to put it into Smith's 
office. This gold was put into bags of $5,000, and then put 
into kegs ; but not in bags constructed for our bank. I do not 
think the bag was sealed ; I have no personal knowledge of 
the payment »f Hewitt, Norton & Co.'s check ; I do not know 
anything of the $50,000 afterward ; my impression is, that the 
transaction was on the day preceding the passage of the forts 
by the United States forces ; I do not know that any receipt 
was given for the silver ; they told me that $50,000 had been 
paid out ; I told them to pay it out with a keg of gold. Before 
we began to pay specie there was no consultation by the 
Board of Directors as to when the bank should obtain its 
supply ; I think Mr. Smith told me he would supply us ; I think 
we had it of him before we heard of Guirot. 

''My impression is, that Mr. Smith asked if I would take some 
silver; that he would get some of Guirot. I said, yes, so far 
as we wanted it, and we would pay for it in gold. I do not 
recollect whether anything was said between myself and Mr. 
Smith as to the object for which Mr. Guirot wanted to change 
the coin. Mr. Smith told me, as I understood him, he wanted 
it in smaller compass, in case he wanted to send it away. This 
was my impression. We must have used Mr. Smith's money 
before it (this coin) came from the mint." 



54 

The affidavit of Samuel S. Booth was then read, as follows : 
Samuel S. Booth, being duly sworn, says that he is a clerk 
in the banking-house of Samuel Smith & Co. ; that they were 
employed in assisting the Canal Bank in paying out specie for 
their bills; that their silver running short, Mr. Smith procured 
it from others during hours of business. Mr. J. Guirot came 
to the bank and had a conversation with Mr. Smith on the 22d 
or 23d of April last, and when Mr. Guirot left, Mr. Smith 
remarked that the Canal Bank was to give $50,000 in gold, 
soon after which the silver came up on a cart, and most of 
which went into the Canal Bank, the residue into the banking- 
house of S. Smith & Co., for the mint, which was delivered to 
Mr. Esnard by me on the following morning, on presentation 

of the order-book appended. 

SAMUEL S. BOOTH. 

Sworn to and subscribed this day of May, 1862. 

D. F. MITCJHELL, 

Justice of the Peace. 



Messrs. Samuel Smith & Co. Please deliver to the bearer, 
Mr. Esnard, the $50,000 in gold. 

Respectfully, A. J. GUIROT. 

April 24, 1862, 

Mr. Neville, a witness called by Samuel Smith & Co., testi- 
fied as follows : — 

" I am one of the clerks of Samuel Smith & Co. ; keep their 
books. [Cash book of Smith & Co. exhibited.] I was not pres- 
ent at any one of those transactions. I only know generally 
that Smith & Co. ought to have the amount of $64,000, which 
is set down in the cash account of Smith & Co. of April 23 ; 
it is in Mr. Booth's handwriting. I have no knowledge of 
what amount they should have at any time other than appears 
on the books." 

And here the court adjourned to meet to-morrow evening, 
at seven and a half o'clock. 



55 



Saturday Evening, June 14, 

Met according to adjournment ; all the members of the com- 
mission and the recorder being present, when the hearing was 
resumed. 

Mr. Neville, being recalled, says as follows: — 
" I collected from the Bank of Louisiana, $2,500 ; Mechanics 
and Traders', $700; Union, $500; Canal, $11,000. The 
entry in the cash book, except as to amount, was an error of 
mine. I do not remember of any other large amount of gold 
coming in on that day or 22d April. I know that a large 
exchange bill sterling had been sold ; the books show on the 
23d April, $64,000 and odd. We were in the habit of buying 
and selling coin and bank-notes every day without aflFecting 
our capital. On September l^th, we had a specie balance of 
about $37,000 and odd. The agreement made by the Canal 
Bank with Samuel Smith & Co., was, that whatever was due at 
the time they resumed specie payment they would assume and 
pay." 

The deposition of C. Bell was then read, as follows: — 
Colville Bell, being duly sworn, says, that on the 22d of 
April last, he received from Sam. Smith & Co. a bill of 
exchange on London of =£6,606, for which he paid Sam. Smith 
& Co. $36,700 in gold by giving them a check on the Canal 
Bank, payable in gold, which is hereto annexed. 

COLVILLE BELL. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 24th day of June, 
1862. 

D. F. MITCHELL, 

Justice of the Peace. 



New Orleans, April 21, 1862. 

Canal Bank. 

Pay to the order of Sam. Smith & Co. (in gold), thirty-six 
thousand seven hundred dollars ($36,700). 

HEWITT, NORTON & CO. 
Per C. Bell. 



56 

Mr. C. Bell was then called by Smith & Co., and testifies as 
follows : — 

" I purchased of Mr. Smith a bill of exchange on April 21. 
I paid for it next day in gold. This was a portion of what 
was due to Hewitt, Norton & Co. 

"Mr. Norton was a director in the Canal Bank. I was 
directed by the president of the bank to collect my balance 
in gold. [The above check shown.] I handed it to Mr. Smith. 
The affidavit was made next day. The check is hereby dated. 
I went to Mr. Smith and got the check in sterling exchange." 

The affidavit of Lafayette Guyal was then read, as follows : — 

Lafayette Guyal, being duly sworn, says he is a book-keeper 
in Canal Bank, and keeps the accounts of Hewitt, Norton & Co.; 
that he knows Samuel Smith & Co. presented for payment on 
the 22d of April, 1862, Hewitt, Norton & Co.'s check for 
$36,700, payable in gold; that said Smith «fe Co. brought also 
into the bank Canal Bank notes and gold, and made a settle- 
ment with the cashier, and received a keg of gold in payment, 
said to contain $50,000 ; recollects the circumstances from 
having assisted at its delivery. 

LAFAYETTE GUYAL. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 14th June, 1862. 

D. F. MITCHELL, 

Justice of the Peace. 



And here the evidence closed. The views of Smith & Co. 
were then presented by Messrs. Barker and Rozier, and the 
views of the United States by Major-General Butler. 

Here the commission adjourned to meet Monday evening, 
June 17. 



On Monday evening, June 17, the commission met, according 
to adjournment, and proceeded to the consideration of the case 
presented, and having heard the evidence on both sides, con- 
sisting of admitted facts, affidavits, books of S. Smith & Co., 



57 

of a commercial character, and documents, and also listened to 
full arguments on both sides of the cause, and having maturely 
deliberated upon the whole case, has rendered the following 
conclusions : — 

First. The admitted fact that Smith & Co. concealed $50- 
000 in gold coin at the time of the approach of the United 
States forces, and on being questioned as to the same, at first 
strenuously denied both its concealment and existence — facts 
that have not in any way been explained by Smith & Co. in 
the trial — tend to raise a violent presumption that these 
$50,000 may be the same which were sent by Mr. A. J. Guirot 
treasurer, from the mint ; and this presumption is by no means 
weakened by the singular obscurity in which Smith & Co. have 
left the affair of the other $50,000 in gold, which apparently 
was made up by Hewitt, Norton <fe Co.'s check on the Canal 
Bank for $36,700, and the remainder by the payment from 
Smith &, Co.'s own funds. In addition to this, the testimony of 
Staub, compared with that of C. Bell, brings the two transac- 
tions, if two they were, of the two kegs of specie upon the 
same day, or possibly consecutive days, and the whole of the 
testimony on Smith & Co.'s side so far would go to raise a 
presumption that the $50,000 lot of gold seized by the United 
States is the same that Guirot sent silver for from the mint ; and 
if it stood uncontradicted, the commission would feel bound to 
declare that there was reasonable ground for holding it as 
being the same. 

But the commission has before it, on the other hand, the 
positive testimony of Esnard and Booth, whose affidavits have 
been allowed to go in without affording the commission the benefit 
of a viva voce examination ; and the witnesses swear positively 
that the keg of gold promised to Guirot was actually taken 
away by Guirot's agents from Smith & Co.'s banking-house. 
This positive testimony the commission feels bound to regard 
as outweighing all the suspicious circumstances which tend to 
show identity, and therefore determines that there is no reason- 



58 



able cause to believe that the specie and property seized by 
the United States in the banking-house of Samuel Smith & Co 
IS the property of the Confederate States, or of any depart- 
ment or office thereof. Having come to this conclusion, from 
the evidence upon the question of the identity of gold seized 
and that destined for Guirot in exchange for the silver he sent 
from the mint, the commission has heard no evidence goino- to 
show that the said specie and other property has been^used in 
any way to aid the Confederate States, or any officer thereof 
in concealing any property of the Confederate States. Havincr 
thus disposed of the first and second points, the commission 
now proceeds to the last, to inquire whether said Smith & Co 
have in any way so acted in behalf of this rebellion as ouo-ht to 
cause the further detention of said specie and other property 
for hearing before the Department in Washington. It was in 
evidence before the commission, by the testimony of Eathbone, 
president of the New Orleans Canal and Banking Company 
that Samuel Smith had informed him, on or about the 23d of 
April, that inasmuch as the bank was drained of silver coin 
and needed a large amount to pay off its bill-holders, $50,000 
could be procured from him by Guirot, the treasurer of the 
mint, for a like sum in gold, and that Guirot had informed him 
he wished to change the silver for gold, in order that he could 
more conveniently carry it off. 

This conversation with Rathbone, in the view taken by the 
commission, fixes upon Smith a knowledge of the design enter- 
tained by Guirot of withdrawing the money in the mint from 
the reach of the United States, and shows further that Smith 
being a director of the bank, by making with it the arranc^e- 
ment on behalf of Guirot, directly aided the latter in carrying 
off the funds of the mint, and so assisted in thwarting the 
military operations of the United States. Whether any or 
what penalty is now, or will be by law, attached to such con- 
duct, the commission do not know. They think that under no 
circumstances can it possibly exceed the amount which Guirot 



59 

was assisted to carry away, and therefore that all specie or 
other property seized beyond the $50,000 in gold should be 
released, and that with regard to such surplus there is no 
cause for further detention. With regard to the $50,000, the 
commission thinks there is ground for detention until the 
proper Department at Washington can he heard from. 

G. F. SHEPLEY. 
THOMAS DURANT. 
W. NEWTON MERCER. 



The undersigned, having by their judgment done all that by 
the strict requirements of law they felt themselves bound to 
perform, would no\^ beg leave most respectfully to submit, that 
in their opinion as citizens and men, in consideration of the 
penance Mr. Smith has already undergone, it seems proper to 
them to suggest to General Butler, that, in the exercise of his 
discretion, he should, in laying this matter before the proper 
department at Washington, recommend as advisable a lenient 
course, looking toward a restoration of the money in case 
such action should not be inconsistent with law, or such other 
form of recommendation as the General might think proper. 

G. F. SHEPLEY. 
THOMAS J. DURANT. 
W. NEWTON MERCER. 

Major-Genekal Butler, commanding Department of the Gulf. 

Mr. BouTWELL. It will be borne in mind, Mr. Speaker, that 
this award was made and submitted to Major- General Butler, 
on the 17th day of June, 1862. The gentleman from New 
York, when questioned yesterday by my colleague [Mr. Gooch] 
as to whether General Butler had made any report to the 
Department in reference to this $50,000 in gold, said that no 
report had been made until the suit was threatened. It will 
appear, from the documents which I shall have the honor to 



60 

submit, that the first letter from the attorney of Smith to 
General Butler was dated February 29, 1864. I have before 
me, and I shall ask the Clerk to read, a communication from 
General Butler to the Secretary of the Treasury, dated the 2d 
of July, 1862, at his headquarters in New Orleans, fifteen days 
after the award was made. The gentleman from New York, 
who comes here to arraign a man who has sacrificed the com- 
forts of home, a lucrative profession, the esteem of his friends, 
his standing in the community, and exposed himself to the 
perils of war, and has done service in the cause of the country, 
while we — I do not say the gentleman from New York alone — 
while we sluggards have done nothing; the gentleman from 
New York, who comes here to arraign such a man, does not 
even take the pains to inquire whether the statements which 
he makes are false or true. 
The Clerk read, as follows : — 

Headquarters Department of the Gulf, 
New Orleans, July 2, 1862. 

Sir, — Will be found inclosed herewith minutes of the doings 
of a commission to inquire into the seizure of the specie of 
Samuel Smith & Co. 

The finding is, that the case should be sent to the Depart- 
ment for investigation. I should have sent the specie ($50,000) 
to you, but this remarkable state of things exists : two pay- 
masters came down here with $285,000, too little money to 
pay the troops of the department, some of whom have not 
been paid for six months, and they and their families are 
sufi"ering for their just dues, which, from the inefficiency of the 
pay department in not making proper requisitions, has not 
been furnished them. I shall, therefore, appropriate this 
$50,000 toward the payment of the troops left unpaid, one of 
which is a western regiment not paid since December, and a 
Maine one not paid since October. I shall borrow of one of 
the banks here $50,000 more in gold (I cannot get Treasury 
notes), upon my own order, and pledging the faith of the 



61 

n^overnment. This I have promised shall be refunded in gold 
in sixty days, with interest at the rate of six per cent, per 
annum, and trust that pledge will be made good, as I shall 
have to suflfer the loss. I shall also obtain of Adams & Co. 
here, $50,000 in Treasury notes, or thereabout, and by leaving 
the allotments unpaid here, but to be paid in New York, I 
shall be able to have the payment completed. But this only 
pays the March payment, leaving two months still due. May I 

ask, therefore, that my draft of $ , in favor of Adams 

& Co., be honored, and a future draft not exceeding in all 
$50,000 be honored at sight, so that Adams & Co. can send 
forward the remittances to the soldiers' wives which have 
been used here to pay others, and that $50,000 in gold be sent 
me to repay that which I have borrowed ? I could not let my 
soldiers go longer unpaid. It was injuring the credit of the 
government with our foes, and breeding sickness and discontent 
among my men. 

Trusting that this action will meet approval in the emer- 
gency, I am most truly yours, 

B. F. BUTLER, 

Major- General Commanding. 
Hon. Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury. 

Mr. BouTWELL. I may state, Mr. Speaker, that this $50,000 
in gold was taken by General Butler, at a time when there was 
no considerable difference between gold and paper. In the 
exigency which existed, he loaned it to the paymasters of New 
Orleans. When they received funds from the government, it 
was returned to him ; and it was twice used in that way for 
the purpose of relieving the claims of the soldiers upon the 
government; and it was finally left in the hands of General 
Butler. 

I ask now that a memorandum which accompanied General 
Butler's account to the War Department, which was in Feb- 
ruary following, shall also be read to the House. 



62 

The Clerk read, as follows : — 

Memorandum to accompany the accounts filed in the War Department. 

In the matter of the item of $59,855, taken from Samuel 
Smith & Co., bankers. 

This money was seized from Smith & Co., upon the belief 
that", it was either the identical money taken from the United 
States mint by the rebel superintendent, or else gold exchanged 
by him for silver which was paid out by the Canal Bank after 
the fleet passed the forts, and by Smith concealed by being 
bricked up in the rear of the vaults of his banking-house. By 
agreement with Mr. Smith, the questions of this seizure were 
submitted to a commission of Governor Shepley, Dr. Mercer, 
president of the Louisiana Bank, and Thomas J. Durant, Esq., 
a leading lawyer of New Orleans. A protracted hearing was 
had, and full examination of evidence by council in behalf of 
the claimants, and report made that all but two kegs, contain- 
ing $50,000, be returned to Smith & Co., which was done ; but 
as to the $50,000, that should be held by the United States, 
subject to the disposal of the Government at Washington. 
This report was forwarded to the Secretary of the Treasury 
(see my letter enclosing same). In the absence of funds to 
pay the troops, some of whom had been six months without 
pay, upon the decision of the commission, this, with other 
moneys, were turned over to the paymaster. Major Hewitt, to 
pay the troops, and his receipt taken. When the money came 
for payment of the troops, this amount was replaced in my 
hands by the paymaster, and is now held for the use of the 
United States. 

Smith & Co. are both active rebels, and have returned to 
their allegiance. They have threatened to hold the General 
making the seizure personally responsible for this amount, and 
he only desires such order may be made as will, if the United 



63 

States receive the money, relieve Mm from personal respon- 
sibility. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 

BENJ. F. BUTLER. 

"Washingtojs, D. C, February 11, 1863. 

Mr. BouTWELL. If I were to stop here, Mr. Speaker, the 
charge of robbery made by the gentleman from New York 
would have failed entirely. Within fifteen days after the 
award of the commissioners, as appears from incontrovertible 
testimony, the circumstances were reported to the Treasury 
Department, and subsequently were made known to the War 
Department. T^e suggestion was made by the General, that, if 
the War Department would relieve him from personal respon- 
sibility, the money would be placed in the hands of the govern- 
ment ; and it will appear, from the testimony which is to be 
herewith submitted, that the War Department refused to relieve 
General Butler, or receive the money ; and he has been 
compelled, from that day to this, to keep it, in order that he 
might save himself from personal responsibility either to the 
government or to Samuel Smith. 

I now present, and ask the Clerk to read, the correspondence 
between Mr. Pierrepont, counsel of Mr. Smith, and General 
Butler. 

The Clerk read, as follows : — 

Treasury Department, February 29, ISG-i. 

Dear Sir, — Samuel Smith, of Saratoga County, New York, 
formerly private banker in New Orleans, has a claim for 
$50,000 in gold used by General Butler, in 1862, for payment 
of his troops in New Orleans. I write this in the Treasury 
Department, with the letter of General Butler to the Secretary 
before me; it is dated July 2, 1862. It was supposed by the 
Secretary that, as the letter of General Butler stated that the 
money was used to pay the troops, that the credit for that 



64 



),000 would be found in Paymaster-General's or Auditor's 
office. I have this day been over the accounts with the clerks, 
and no mention of the money appears. Will you do me the 
favor to say, to what paymaster this money was given, and in 
what accounts this $50,000 should appear ? I am the counsel 
of Mr. Smith, and the Paymaster-General suggests this as the 
quickest way to learn what paymaster had the money. Your 
letter of July 2, 1862, only states the fact that the money was 
paid to your troops, without naming this, what paymaster. 

The accounts of Hewitt, Sherman, Locke, and Usher, have 
all been examined, and we find no account of it. Will you 
do me the favor to reply to this at my residence, 103 Fifth 
Avenue, New York City, and much oblige. 

Yours, very respectfully, 

EDWARDS PIERREPONT. 

Majok-General Butler. 



Treasury Department, March 3, 1864. 

General, — When I had the honor to address you on the 29th 
ultimo, I was not as well advised as now. As counsel for 
Samuel Smith & Co., whose $50,000 in gold was taken in New 
Orleans, and which matter you had referred to the Treasury, 
together with all the papers, I have had case examined, 
and have produced Mr. Smith, and had his deposition with 
others taken here and filed. I had reached the point when I 
had supposed the money would be paid over, and the Secretary 
undertook to find to what credit it stood ; and not being able 
to find out, at the suggestion of the Paymaster-General, I 
wrote to you. 

Now I have just learned from the Secretary of War more 
about the matter. Will you do me the favor to inform me who 
has the money, and to whom, in your judgment, I ought to look 
for it, and to whom it rightfully belongs ? 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

EDWARDS PIERREPONT, 

16 Wcdl Street, New York. 
Major-General Butler, 



65 



16 Wall Street, New York, March 15, 1864, 

General, — Two weeks ago this day, I wrote from Washing- 
ton to learn where the $50,000 in gold, taken from Samuel 
Smith & Co., New Orleans, now is. I wrote with yours of 
July 2, 1862, directed to the Secretary of the Treasury, before 
m^ in which you speak of this gold; the letter is now on file» 
with the repdrt of Governor Shepley and others. I am 
Samuel Smith's counsel. Will you do me the favor to say, 
what was the disposition of Mr. Smith's gold, where it is, and 
to whom, in your judgment, it rightly belongs ? 

I also addressed you a second letter on the same subject. 
As I have no reply from either, I fear that you may not 
have received them. 

To avoid accident, I will send this in duplicate, and very 
respectfully await your reply. 

Ever your obedient, 

EDWARDS PIERREPONT, 

Counsel for Samuel Smith. 
Major-General Butler, 



Headquarters Department of Virginia and North Carolina, 
Fort Monroe, March 21, 1864. 

Edwards Pierrepont, Esq. : 

I am in receipt of your letter in regard to the money alleged 
to be of Samuel Smith & Co., bankers, at New Orleans, up to 
the time of the capture of that city by the United States 
forces. As you are aware, I am in the field, and have, there- 
fore, no books or papers with me relating to former transac- 
tions, and was obliged to wait until I had examined some 
memoranda before I could make as full an answer as I could 
wish. This must be my apology for the delay in answering 
your letters. I am now without dates and amounts ; but the 
facts, and the order of sequence, I am quite sure, will be with- 
out mistake. 

5 



66 



The case of Smith & Co. was as follows: — Within a few 
days after my arrival in New Orleans, I received information 
that the director of the United States mint, before the appear- 
ance of the United States fleet, had fled up the Red River with 
Governor T. 0. Moore and a portion of the mint, and some of 
the New Orleans banks. That he had deposited with Samuel 
Smith & Co., bankers, whose place of business was next door 
to the Canal Bank and banking-house, $50,000 of the specie 
which belonged to the United States. Upon further examina- 
tion, it appears that the mint director, finding the silver bulky 
ta carry away, had placed a large sum with Smith & Co., who 
had loaned it, or a portion of it, to the Canal Bank, which 
during some days just before the taking of the city of New 
Orleans had been redeeming its circulation in specie : that 
this silver had been paid out by the bank to its customers and 
bill-holders : that Samuel Smith & Company had received for 
specie $50,000 in gold, in two kegs, either from the director 
or bank, which being simply in exchange for the money of the 
United States, was, of course, the property of the United 
States, — Smith & Co. having this idea of concealing the stolen 
specie of the United States. Thereupon I caused Samuel 
Smith & Co. to be brought before me for examination, and in 
the most solemn manner they denied as well the exchange of 
the silver as the possession of the gold or silver: knew not 
where there was any concealed, or conveyed away : owned 
that their books would show that they had no gold of any 
amount. I ordered their books and papers to be seized and 
examined. Finding upon the books, which had been altered 
and erased for the occasion, that the firm had a quantity of 
gold, although by no means the amount of $50,000, and feeling 
sure of my information, I ordered Smith to be sent to Fort 
Jackson. Smith thereupon confessed that the whole story, 
therefore, had been a lie, and that he had bricked up, in the 
air-space between his safe and the wall of his counting-house, 
a large amount of gold and silver. Upon sending there, we 



67 

found the two kegs of $25,000 each we were in search of, and 
some bags of gold and silver, amounting to some fourteen or 
seventeen thousand dollars more, some of which corresponded 
with some of the entries on Smith & Co.'s books. I thereupon 
seized the specie, and held it for the use of the Government. 

Afterward, Mr. Jacob Barker applied to me for a hearing 
upon the question of property, and whether there was proba- 
ble cause for holding this gold as the property of the United 
States. I appointed a commission, consisting of General 
Shepley, military governor, Dr. Mercer, president of the Bank 
of Louisiana, and Thomas J. Durant (I believe), an eminent 
lawyer of New Orleans, to adjudicate and determine these 
questions. A full hearing was had, witnesses were examined, 
books produced and examined, and counsel heard in arguments. 
I remember the president of the Canal Bank was examined, 
and made a very lame explanation of how Mr. Smith got this 
money out of his bank, and of the way he borrowed silver of 
the mint. Smith's brother was also examined, who gave a still 
more lame account of the alteration of the books, and why 
there appeared in the cash account about that time so many 
thousand dollars' worth of lead, and on the next page so many 
thousand dollars' worth of " Tin." Suffice it 'to say, that after 
a laborious examination, the Board reported, that the fourteen 
or seventeen thousand dollars of specie was the property of 
Smith & Co., and should be given up to them, and that there 
was cause for holding the two kegs of $25,000 each. This 
report, with the accompanying documents, was thereupon for- 
warded to the Treasury Department at Washington. All the 
smaller sums of fourteen thousand dollars or so, and papers, 
were returned immediately to Smith & Co., with the exception 
of about thirteen hundred dollars, about which a dispute arose 
between Smith & Co. and my officers, they avowing that they 
had never received the amount, while Smith claimed that they 
had. 

Afterward, before I left New Orleans, in order that there 



68 



might be no just cause to suspect the integrity of my oflBcers, I 
paid Mr. Barker (Smith's counsel) the sum in dispute, and took 
his receipt. In the meantime my troops had remained unpaid 
for more than six months, and, although repeated requisitions 
had been made on the Treasury, still the money had not been 
transmitted. Believing that this gold belonged to the United 
States, as I now believe, and there being no difference at that 
date between gold and treasury notes in New Orleans, and but 
little anywhere, for reasons stated in my reports to the Trea- 
sury I turned over this gold from time to time to my pay-, 
masters, to be paid out to the troops, and it was done ; and 
when afterward they got funds they repaid me, and, indeed, I 
believe it was advanced to them and returned more than once. 
The reasons why, probably, you cannot find that gold, " eo 
nomi?ie," in the accounts of Majors Hewitt and Usher, was, 
that no difference was made in paying the troops between that 
and treasury notes, and therefore receiving it and returning it 
when they had funds, there would be no appearance of it. 

You will find, therefore, in my accounts settled at the War 
Office, that I have charged myself with that amount of $50,000, 
and made myself responsible to the Government for it in a 
final settlement of my account, taking care that any supposed 
rights of Smith & Co. should be preserved by a written state- 
ment filed with the accounts in the War Office as well as my 
report to the Treasury. In the usual case of a disputed claim 
I should hardly have felt myself called upon to answer to the 
counsel of one party to have given so full a statement of facts ; 
but, having taken this money as an executive officer of the 
Government, I have felt it my duty to make full expositions 
of all the facts, so far as they have come to my knowledge and 
are now within my recollection. I may, however, be permitted 
to add a single fact, which will perhaps be no information to 
their counsel, — that the two brothers, Smith & Co., were both 
bitter, active, and unrepenting rebels, who refused to take the 
oath of allegiance so long as I remained in New Orleans, and 



69 

one or both, I believe, went to Canada to reside. If you 
should desire any other questions answered in this regard, you 
have only to propose them, and if you will give me opportunity 
to go to books and papers, I have no doubt but I can give you 
sums and dates. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, 
Your obedient servant, 

B. F. BUTLER, 

Major- General Commanding. 

Mr. BouTWELL. Following that letter was another from Mr. 
Pierrepont, which I ask the Clerk to read, as well as the 
answer of Major-General B. F. Butler. 

The Clerk read, as follows : — 

16 "Wall Stkeet, New Yokk, March 26, 1864. • 

My Dear General, — I am very truly obliged by your sat- 
isfactory letter received this hour. It fully explains the delay, 
by which I have been a little annoyed. Pardon this suggestion : 
why not pass over the money to the War Office or to the 
Treasury, and leave me to such remedy there as the govern- 
ment may think fit ? 

They now say the money is not in their hands. Please let 
me hear upon this. 

Very truly yours, 

EDWARDS PIERREPONT. 

Major-Genekal Butler. 



Headquarters Department op Virginia and North Carolina, 
Fort Monroe, March 28, 1864. 

Dear Sir, — Your note of the 26th instant is received, and 
I am glad to be able to answer it speedily. I am much obliged 
for your suggestions. When I settled my accounts at the War 
Office, the question of what shall be done with this money of 
Samuel Smith k Co. came under discussion, and I then said to 
the Secretary of War, that, as a lawyer, I supposed that I 
might be held personally for the sum, and that if he would give 



70 

me an order to pay over the money to the War Office, in such 
form to release me from responsibility if hereafter called upon 
by Smith & Co., I should be glad to pay the money over. He 
doubted whether this could be done, and suggested the money 
might lie in my hands until the Department was called upon 
for it, and that a proper memorandum should be put on file, so 
that Smith & Co.'s rights, if they had any, should be preserved 
as well as my own. There is no difficulty in dealing with the 
money now iu the same way. 

If the War Department directs an order to me to pay the 
money, either into the Treasury or contingent fund of the 
Department, and Smith & Co., acting under your advice, will 
give me a memorandum stating that such payment shall relieve 
me from personal responsibility, I will give a draft for the 
amount on the Assistant-Treasurer of the United States. that 
will be honored at once. 

I think it but right, however, that my first letter to you, 
stating the facts of the capture of the money, should be laid 
before the War Department, for its information, before any 
order is made on the subject transferring the funds to 
Smith & Co. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully. 

Your obedient servant, 

BENJ. F. BUTLER, 

Major- General Commanding. 
Hon. Edwards Pleerepont, New York. 

P. S. Since writing the above note, I have received from my 
clerk a copy of the memorandum filed at the War Office at the 
time of the settlement of my accounts of which I have. 

Mr. BouTWELL. I ask that some further correspondence be 
read. 

The Clerk read, as follows: — 

16 Wall Street, New York, April 1, 18G4. 

My Dear General, — I am very glad to receive your letter 
of 28th of March. I am not one of your enemies. That mat- 



71 



ter will now be adjusted, and I will write you some statement 
of facts, of which it is evident you are not apprised. Immedi- 
ately after the seizure of the gold, Smith came here ; he was 
born in Saratoga County, where his mother now lives, and he 
has been with her here, and in Washington, most of the time 
since. 

He employed Senator Reverdy Johnson and myself as his 
counsel; as the younger man, I have been the more active. 
The report of the commissioners which you appointed clearly 
established, beyond all controversy, that the gold belonged to 
Smith. The commissioners so report; and the evidence 
returned with the report abundantly established the conclusion. 

These papers, with your letter of July 2, 1862, are now in 
the Treasury Department, and I have complete copies of them 
all. I took Mr. Smith to Washington, and his deposition was 
taken at great length, and is now on file with the other papers. 
Mr. Smith is a Yankee, born of a Yankee, bred a Yankee, has 
taken the oath of allegiance, and is as true and loyal as you or 
I. He has not been in Canada at all ; he tried, in the fright 
and terror which prevailed in New Orleans, to save his prop- 
erty in part. Dr. Mercer, who acted on the commission, is 
now here. I am truly glad that this matter is about to be 
adjusted. Not every one who has been ia the case has the 
same desire to have it quickly settled as I have. My own 
view about the case is this : I think it quite clear that you 
could not successfully resist a suit in New York brought by 
Smith to recover whatever damages he can prove. I think the 
true way to settle it is for you to pay Smith, and take a release, 
with the assent of the War Department. If you agree with 
me, I will see that it is done in such way as you shall see is 
liberal and just. I await your reply. 

Ever truly yours, 

EDWARDS PIERREPONT. 

Majok-General Butlek. 



72 



April 4, 1864. 



My Dear Sir, — I can only repeat my offer, that whenever 
the War Department will order the money paid over to your 
client, and he shall give me a release, my draft for the amount 
will be forwarded. I am glad to hear that Mr. Smith is loyal. 
His conversion I trust is sincere. For yourself, I thank you 
for your expressions of kindness and confidence, and while 
they are very gratifying indeed to one who has been so much 
maligned as I have been, yet you will see in this transaction I 
have so lived as to defy my enemies. Allow me, my dear sir, 
further to say " Ex uno disce omnesy For a while you will 
confess to yourself that you doubted my action in this business. 
I am as willing that every act of my official life shall be as 
thoroughly investigated as this may be. Therefore you will 
sec, that while I am obliged for the friendly feeling which 
prompted you to desire this case " quickly settled," still, if 
those who desired otherwise had had their way, I should have 
been as well pleased, because conscious of having endeavored 
to do my duty. An attack upon me in this case would have 
failed, and thus answered a thousand others to which no reply 
can ever be otherwise made. Upon the point of law which 
you suggest, pardon me if I differ from a lawyer so distin- 
guished as yourself. I do not believe that a military com- 
mander in a captured city, taking money (contraband of war) 
whicTi might be used against that officer's army, from an alien 
enemy, can be held liable for the capture as a trespassor for 
the tort in not returning upon demand which might sustain 
trover after the enemy became a friend and capacitated to sue. 
I am inclined to think, that having paid the money to his 
government would answer the demand. It was to avoid this 
after question, however (I had no doubt on the first), that I 
hesitated to pay the money to the government. Still I am 
rusty at the law, and my opinions are not now, if they ever 
were, worth much. 

Yours truly, B. F. BUTLER. 



73 



16 Wall Street, October 26, 1864. 

Mt Dear Sir, — You leave Mr. Smith no alternative but to 
commence an action. It is not necessary there be any publi- 
cations in the papers if you will authorize any attorney to 
appear for you, but otherwise it is necessary. 

I do not wish any publication unless you wish it. Please 
let me know your attorney at once, if you have one here. 

Truly, EDWARDS PIERREPONT. 

Majok-Genekal Butlek. 



Headquarters near Varina, October 28, 1864. 

My Dear Sir, — Your note inclosing the summons and com- 
plaint in the case of Mr. Smith and brother was received last 
evening in the field. I hasten to answer. 

Although not a resident of New York, or amenable to the 
jurisdiction of her courts, so that a summons could hardly 
bring me in, yet I shall at once acknowledge service, and 
instruct my attorney, John A. Hackett, Esq., to make answer. 
Having done this, I shall rely on your courtesy to allow me a 
little time to go to Washington to make the following dispo- 
sition of the cause. When you desired me to assent to a 
friendly suit, I could make no answer to the proposition, be- 
cause as an official I could do nothing in any way to compro- 
mise the rights of the United States. Now, however, your 
proceeding in invitum leaves me in a different situation, 
because although I am acknowledging service, still as I must 
come to New York and can hardly travel inco^., you could 
obtain service, and therefore without prejudice a suit may be 
considered fairly begun. 

I will now apply to the War Department, and ask the gov- 
ernment to assume the defense ; if that is done, then I have > 
no further interest in the matter; if not, then I am at liberty 
to arrange with your client, or contest the suit, as I choose, 
and am left free to negotiate about a matter in which I can 
have no personal interest except to save myself from cost. So 



. 74 

soon, therefore, as I can get away, ■which I hope to be in a few 
days, I will make answer, or will meet you, as you prefer, and 
be able to state exactly my position on this subject. Of 
course, the suit, if it goes forward, will be removed into the 
courts of the United States. You will not need to be told, that 
these suggestions do not proceed from any desire to delay 
your clients ; but, in fact, to further their interests, if they have 
any. You will please answer me at once, whether this course 
will meet your concurrence. 

As to publication, I beg leave to repeat to you that I can 
have no objection to any person knowing every fact connected 
with this transaction. The most exaggerated stories have 
been told about it privately, from which I am suffering; but 
what can I do about it that I have not done ? 

Respectfully, BENJ. F. BUTLER, 

Major- General. 
Hon. Edwards Pierbepont, Counsellor-at-Law, 16 Wall Street. 

16 Wall Street, November 2, 1864. 

My Dear General, — Yours received, and satisfactory. You 
have been a General since you were a lawyer, and when you 
speak of jurisdiction, I think you have not rea-d our recent 
statute. 

"We have a way to get jurisdiction not like old way ; but 
that is no matter. I will show you when we meet. Your 
proposition is satisfactory, and I shall confer with your 
attorney. 

I send you my speech. 

Yours, EDWARDS PIERREPONT. 

Majoe-General Bdtler. 

Mr. BouTWELL. Mr. Speaker, the last letter indicates that 
General Butler was about to apply to the War Department 
for leave to pay over the money, and that the Department 
should assume the responsibility of the defense. I now lay 
before the House his letter to the Solicitor of the War Depart- 



75 

ment, and the reply of the War Department, which will close 
the papers on this branch of the case. 

The Clerk read, as follows : — 

Headquarters Department Virginia and North Carolina, 
Fortress Monroe, Va., November 28, 1864. 

My Dear Whiting, — I inclose herewith to you a note to 
the Secretary of War, in relation to the matter of Samuel 
Smith & .Co., bankers, of New Orleans. 

I think it a clear case for a test question, and hope the gov- 
ernment will defend it. Please bring the paper to the notice 
of the Secretary, and get his permission to allow me to publish 
the note in my own justification. 

Although somewhat thick-skinned to newspaper attacks, yet 
some of my good and true friends are writing me that I ought 
to explain the facts, and I know no better way to do so than 
by such publication. 

If I may rely upon those friendly relations which exist 
between us, upon you to procure this to be done, you will add 
another to the many obligations under which I am to yourself. 

By the by, why do you not come to the " front " and see how 

war is actually carried on? I will give you a "plate and a 

blanket." 

Yours truly, 

BENJ. F. BUTLER. 

Major- General. 
Hon. Wuxiam "Whiting, Solicitor of the War Department. 

War Department, Washington City, 
December 6, 1864. 

General, — I am instructed by the Secretary of War to 
inform you — 

First. That your communication dated at Fortress Monroe, 
November 28, and addressed to him in relation to the claim of 
Samuel Smith & Co. against you, was referred to the Judge- 



76 

Advocate General for opinion and report on the question of 
indemnity you ask for. 

Upon that reference, the Judge-Advocate General reports : 

" The question of indemnification can not be determined at 
this stage of the proceedings. Should there be a judgment 
against the applicant, his rights to be indemnified against it 
will depend upon the character of his conduct, considered in 
all its bearing, which has given rise to the suit. This will be 
best understood when examined in the light of the testimony 
which will be produced on the trial. If the applicant acted 
within the scope of his powers, fairly interpreted, his claims 
to protection against the results of this suit should be allowed. 
The fact that he has retained the gold seized, and now holds 
it subject to the order of the Government, is not considered 
as affecting the right or obligations involved." 
• This report is approved, and will govern the action of the 
Department upon your request for indemnity. 

Second. In relation to your request for leave to publish 
your letter to the Secretary of War, the Secretary directs me 
to say, that no objection is made by the Department to your 
publication of any statement in regard to the claim of Smith 
& Co. which you may deem essential for your vindication. 

Third. In reference to the information given by you to 
the Department, a copy of your memorandum in relation to 
the gold of Smith & Co., seized by you, filed with your 
accounts and vouchers, in the War Department, is hereto 
annexed. 

I am, General, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

E. D. TOWNSEND, 

Assistant Adjutant- General. 
Major-General B. F. Butler, Commanding Department of Virginia and 
North Carolina, City Point, Virginia. 

Mr. Boutwell. Mr. Speaker, this closes the documentary 
evidence I have to submit to the house in regard to the charge 



77 

made by the gentleman from New York [Mr. Brooks]. As 
far as I can judge of the weight of evidence, it is conclusive in 
its refutation of this statement made by him. 

In the first place, there is no element of the crime of 
robbery in this transaction, from the beginning to the end. 
The seizure was made by a public officer, a military com- 
mander, in pursuance of what he believed then to be his duty, 
and what I believe a jury of his countrymen anywhere, on the 
evidence, would find to have been his duty under the circum- 
stances under which he was placed. He submitted the whole 
question of the right of property, as far as it could be sub- 
mitted, to a military commission, and he followed the decree 
or award made by that commission, and within fifteen days 
reported the facts to the government, and from that day to this 
he has always been ready and responsible. He has again and 
again solicited the Department to take the money and assume 
the responsibility — either to take it as belonging to the 
government, or pay it over to Samuel Smith & Co., and 
relieve him. 

I am not here as the defender of General Butler. He has 
no claim upon me, and I have no obligation toward him, 
except what I owe to my countrymen whenever and wherever 
applying for justice. Believing, also, that wherever the slander 
is made, there, if possible, in that place, it should be exposed, 
I have volunteered so far as to submit this evidence in this 
particular case. And I say, further, while I have no informa- 
tion in regard to any other transaction of General Butler, I 
believe, whenever the issue is made with him in reference to 
any transaction of his, he will be as clearly triumphant over 
his enemies as in this day and this place I believe him now 
to be. 

I ask the Clerk to read an extract from the speech of the 
gentleman from New York ; and then I will submit to him the 
question I indicated at the beginning of my remarks. 



78 

The Clerk read, as follows : — 

" I am bound to say, that an effort was made by the Federal 
Government, during the pendency of the late presidential elec- 
tion, to control the city of New York, by sending there a bold 
robber, in the person of a Major-General of the United States. 
Robber as he was of the public Treasury, and Major-General 
of the United States, as he was, he dared not exercise the 
power given to hitn to attempt to control the actions of those 
whom the gentleman calls thieves and robbers in my own 
city." 

True copy: H.C.CLARKE, 

Caiyiain and A. D. C. 

Mr. BouTWELL. Now, Mr. Speaker, I ask the gentleman 
from New York, whether, from the evidence which has been 
submitted to this House, and in view of all the circumstances 
in the case, he re-affirms the extract which has been read from 
the Clerk's desk, or retracts it ? I yield for a reply. 

Mr. Brooks. Has the gentleman concluded his remarks ? 

Mr. BouTWELL. I have not. 

Mr. Brooks. Whenever the gentleman concludes, I shall 
be happy to make reply. The introduction of his remarks 
shows that he is not entitled to courtesy. He spoke of me as 
in sympathy with the secessionists. At the conclusion of the 
gentleman's remarks, and finding what he has to say, I shall be 
ready to reply. 

Mr. BouTWELL. I understand, then, that the gentleman is 
neither prepared at this moment to re-affirm the statement 
made in that speech, nor to retract it. On this evidence, con- 
clusive as to the falsity of the charge, the gentleman from New 
York stands silent, and will neither re-affirm the declaration 
that he has made to this House, and to the country, that Major- 
General Butler, of the Army, is a gold robber, nor will he> 
upon this evidence, retract it. Has it made no impression 
upon him ? Does he not comprehend it ? Does he yet persist 



79 

in allowing that declaration made in his speech to stand upon 
the record ? If he has a name to live, does not the dread of 
posterity inspire him to do justice to a servant of the country ? 
Is he still silent ? Has he no voice to re-affirm what he has 
declared, or is he yet destitute, shall I say of manliness, to 
admit that he was mistaken ? 

I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Stevens], 
whatever may remain of the time allotted to me. 



SPEECH ON EMANCIPATION. 



[Reported for the Boston Journal.] • 

A meeting was held at the Music Hall, Saturday evening, 
February 4th, for the purpose of rejoicing over the passage by 
Congress of the Constitutional Amendment prohibiting human 
slavery in the United States forever. 

Speeches were made by Colonel Albert J. Wright, Hon. 
Josiah Quincy, William Lloyd Garrison, and Rev. Dr. Kirk. 

The Chairman next introduced General Butler, as one who 
had done, perhaps, more than any other in this great cause for 
the freedom of the slave, and who, laying aside all old party 
prejudices, had stood up manfully for the rights of the con- 
traband. 

General Butler was received with the greatest enthusiasm. 
The audience rose to their feet, and cheered vehemently, the 
ladies waving hundreds of white handkerchiefs. When the 
tumult had subsided, he proceeded to address the meeting. 

SPEECH OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 

Almost ninety years since, amid the radiant glories of mid- 
summer, our fathers assembled to congratulate each other upon 
a declaration of human rights, which has since been claimed to, 
be a charter to the white man only. 

OUR FATHERS SUPPOSED SLAVERY WOULD DIE OP ITSELF. 

Seventy-seven years ago, in mid-winter, Massachusetts 
debated the acceptance of the Constitution of the United 
States — the solemn compact of assurance to those rights — 
the most perfect form of government ever devised by man — 



81 

but which left uncared for and unprovided safeguards of free- 
dom and equality of right to all men, irrespective of color. 
Doubtless, our fathers believed that the clear interests of the 
rising nation would protect it from the then receding weight 
of human slavery. 

NATURAL INTERESTS OF THE SOUTH SUSTAINED IT, AND WE ARE 
PUNISHED FOR THE SIN. 

But, alas, a single Massachusetts invention — the cotton-gin 
— opposed the present interests of the individual to the future 
good of the State, and made the burden — greater than that 
of the Pilgrim Christian — seem eternal. From that one 
defect of constitutional law has arisen the most gigantic 
national sin, followed by the most terrible national retribution 
with which the Divine will has seen fit to afflict the children 
of men. 

THE EVIL NOW TO BE REMEDIED. 

The nation brought to a sense of justice by its chastisement, 
we are now met to congratulate ourselves upon the first step 
taken in supplying this omission of the frame of government 
of '87. 

Released from all constitutional obligations to protect 
slavery, acting upon the frame of government itself, three- 
fourths of the loyal people of the country will have no diffi- 
culty in erasing from their fundamental law this the last blot 
upon their civilization. (Applause.) 

OUR DUTIES AND OBLIGATIONS TO THE NEGRO CONSIDERED. 

Amid the joyous scenes of this triumph of the right which 
animate the hearts of all good men, even now and here it may 
not be unfit to pause for a moment to consider the duties and 
obligations under which we find ourselves to this class of citi- 
zens, so constituted and declared by this change in our organic 
law. Laying aside all prejudices, giving up all theories,''put- 
ting away all predilections, we should approach the subject as 

6 



82 



one calling for prompt, active, and efficient justice ; at least, 
to make amends for former long-continued wrongs. 

EVERY NEGRO NOW A CITIZEN. 

By the final passage of the amendment which we celebrate, 
every negro slave is made a citizen of the United States, 
entitled as of right to every political and legal immunity and 
privilege which belongs to that great franchise. (Loud 
applause.) He may well say, I am an American citizen. (Re- 
newed applause.) If he may not proudly proclaim with the 
apostle, " I was free born," yet he can truly claim, as did the 
chief captain, " With a great sum obtained I this freedom." 
(Great applause.) Of these rights, or either of them, no man, 
no combination or confederation of men, can with justice 
deprive the negro. As a nation he is of us, with us, and a 
part of us, equal in right under the law. (Cheers and 
applause.) 

THE NEGRO HAS ALWAYS HAD EQUALITY OP RIGHT BY 
OUR LAWS. 

To the men of Massachusetts in this so clear and self- 
evident proposition there seems no difficulty. Since 1789, the 
colored man in Massachusetts, under the laws thereof, modified 
only by the laws of the United States, has enjoyed the rights 
and privileges of every other citizen of Massachusetts. The 
child goes to the same school. The man partakes of the same 
employments. The same learned professions — medicine, the 
bar, the pulpit — are open to himj and, more than all, he 
carries to the election of his rulers and framing of the laws 
the equal ballot, which, 

"soft falling- 
Like the snow-flake on the sotl, 
Executes the freeman's will, 
As lightning does the will of God." 

(Great applause.) 



83 



PEEJUDICE ARISING FROM SLAVERY HAS CAUSED THE NEGRO 
TO BE UNJUSTLY DEALT WITH ELSEWHERE. 

In other sections of the country, the mind, warped and 
twisted by the influence of the system of slavery, whose fune- 
ral obsequies we are now attending, does not at once compre- 
hend these truths, and admit the force of the inexorable logic 
of equal rights. 

Men, otherwise just and good, have been brought to believe 
that the negro can have no practical rights as a citizen; 
no claims to be considered as an integral part of the inhab- 
itants of the country, and is to be treated as if he were an 
alien. Nay, more, as if he were a beast, and a dangerous 
beast beside, either to be sent out of the country or to be 
herded and penned as such, in some remote or unhealthy 
corner thereof, as not fit to live on the soil which gave him 
birth, and to which he has every right, and is held by every 
tie and attachment which bind a man to that portion of earth 
which he calls home and country. 

GENERAL SHERMAN PROPOSES TO SHUT HIM UP IN THE RICE 
FIELDS AND ON THE COTTON ISLANDS. 

It has been, therefore, proposed to send him away ; to herd 
him in rice swamps or cotton islands, where, alone, he may 
listen to the sad music of the roar of the ocean surf, not more 
relentless and unceasing to him than the wrongs of his fellow- 
man. There to prevent any white man or white woman in the 
missionary labor of love to visit him. Uneducated, to put him 
beyond the pale of education; to allow his child never to 
know the benefit of the common school. Just released from a 
worse than Egyptian bondage, to make him a colonist, without 
the implements of colonization or fostering care on the part 
of the mother country. 

MASSACHUSETTS WILL NEVER CONSENT TO THIS. 

To any such illogical and unjust treatment of the negro, it 



84 

need not be said that the people of Massacliusetls will never 
consent. (Loud applause.) 

IT IS UNWISE. 

Our material interest and the interests of the country are 
against it. For two hundred and fifty years, at least, we have 
been importing the laborer, because we needed labor in this 
country. The necessity for labor here has caused it to be 
imported, even to be employed in the wasteful habits of 
slavery. Shall we, now that four millions of strong hands and 
willing hearts are made free laborers, productive and profit- 
able, take them from the lands which they have tilled — from 
the homes in which they have been reared — from their hearth- 
stones, as dear to them as our roof-tree is to us, and send 
them away to some foreign land, or shut them up in some 
portion of this, where their labor, if not wholly unproductive 
and lost, must be unprofitable ? 

IT IS UNJUST. 

Our sense of justice denies it. They have taken up arms 
freely and willingly in our defense, and we have given them 
their freedom and rights as citizens. 

THERE IS NO FKBEDOM IN IT. 

What just freedom is it to them to be penned in a corner or 
to be shut up in a rice swamp, and not be allowed to see the 
face of their white fellow-citizens, except it may be of a soldier 
sent as their guard ? What true citizenship is it to be deprived 
of their equal rights in the land their arms have helped to save 
from the fiery furnace of rebellion, and to be put upon such 
portions of it only as are not thought to be well habitable by 
their white fellow-soldiers? 

IT IS UNFAIR. 

What fair division can it be of the heritage acquired in part 



85 

by their blood, to give their white fellow-soldier one hundred 
and sixty acres of land, to be located where he chooses, "the 
finest the sun e'er shone upon," to him and to his heirs forever, 
while to the colored soldier, scarred, perhaps, with honorable 
wounds, but forty acres of a rice swamp to be allotted, or eight 
hundred feet front of marsh on a sluggish river, and that a 
possessory title only ? 

IT IS NOT STATESMANSHIP. 

And yet the distinguished General, who makes this proposi- 
tion, says : ^' The young and able-bodied negroes are to be 
encouraged to contribute their share toward maintaining their 
own freedom, and securing their rights as citizens of the 
United States." What encouragement to enlist is this ? 
What freedom? What rights of citizenship for which to 
shed one's blood, even if it is only black blood? What 
wise statesmanship ever yet founded a colony from which 
the young and able-bodied men were taken as soldiers ? — 
where the blacksmiths, carpenters, and the skilled mechanics 
were taken from the settlement? — and where the respect- 
able heads of families had no inducements held out to them 
for leaving the homes of their childhood, and making new 
homes in the wildei^ness, save a possessory title only, to forty 
acres of land, not too much out of water ? 

Under such inducements, under such pupilage, with such 
restrictions, and with such hopes, even our hardy Anglo-Saxon 
fathers, who landed at Plymouth, would not have thriven. 
How much less, then, is the negro, by our wrongs untaught, 
uncultivated, and without the habit of self-dependence, fitted 
thus to take care of himself. 

IT IS UNCHRISTIAN. 

The precepts of our holy religion forbid it. Every benevo- 
lent Christian in the land has contributed his mite to send the 
self-sacrificing missionary to redeem the Pagan from darkness^ 
and yet here it is proposed to erect a heathenage upon our 



86 

own soil, into which no Christian minister or Sabbath-school 
teacher, upon their high and holy mission, shall penetrate, if it 
is their good fortune to have a white face. 

MASSACHUSETTS IS FIXED AGAINST IT. 

I repeat it again, Massachusetts is unalterably opposed to 
a?iy propositio?i of colonization or segregation of American 
citizens, made so by this amendment of the Constitution. 
(Great cheering.) 

THE NEGRO SHALL CONTROL HIS OWN LABOR. 

No ! We propose, on the other hand, simply to let the 
negro alone (renewed cheers) ; that he shall, in fact, enjoy the 
right of selecting his own place of labor ; the person for whom 
he will labor, if not for himself; to make his contract for his 
labor ; to determine its length and its value ; to allow him at 
least the enjoyment of the primordial curse, " In the sweat of 
thy face shalt thou eat bread " ; restrained only by the 
laws, applying to him, and to all, alike — as the rain falleth 
upon the just and the unjust. 

HE IS TO BE AIDED TO TAKE CARE OP HIMSELF IN THE SOUTHERN 
STATES WHERE HE IS NEEDED, AND LET ALONE. 

We also accept the fact, that by our injustice to him and his 
race, he is thrown upon the government, unused to care for 
himself, unfurnished with means of beginning life anew. And 
we agree that it is our duty, and the duty of the government, 
to remedy this injustice ; to see to it that he is taught; that he 
is gradually brought to a state of self-dependence, and inde- 
dence of others ; that he shall have a fair share of the lands 
that he and his fathers have wrought upon ; that he shall be 
left in the several States where his labor is needed and is pro- 
ductive ; and that he be furnished at first with the means of 
beginning that life which justice, equal laws and equal rights, 
have for the first time opened up to him and his children 
forever. And, when this is done, we believe our duty is done; 



87 

and that thereafter, so far as governmental interference goes, 
the negro is to be let severely alone. (Great applause.) 

We believe that he shall work, as every man must work, or 
become a vagabond. We believe he must be taught, as every 
man must be taught, to be a good citizen. We believe he must 
be furnished with the means of beginning life, as^ every man 
must be furnished with the means of beginning life, either with 
education, habits of self-dependence, or with the fruits of 
ancestral earnings ; and when these ^re given to him, we have 
repaired in part the wrong we have done him. We may then 
hope to receive the pardon of the Almighty for the sins we 
and our fathers have committed toward him. 

TILL WE DO THIS THE WAR WILL NOT END. 

Failing in this, our duty, we may fear still further chastise- 
ment from His hand who has sustained us, as He sustained our 
fathers, because the bitter cup of purification and chastisement 
has not yet been suffered to pass from our lips. 

As a nation, we have taken the first step in the right direc- 
tion. We have bowed to the first principles of eternal justice. 
If we go forward with no halting tread, taking no step back- 
ward, we may look with humble confidence, that hereafter our 
political sky shall be so healthy and so pure that no thunder- 
storm and torrent will need to be sent to clear the national 
atmosphere, and to wash away with blood the sins of the 
people. Unless we do justice, how can we hope for justice or 
mercy ? And although the punishment for a national wrong 
and national sin is sometimes in wisdom delayed, and wicked- 
ness seems for a time to escape punishment, yet, 

"The mills of God grind slow. 
But they grind exceeding fine." 

THEODORE PARKER. — HORACE MANN. 

Amid our joyous notes of congratulatory triumph, may we 
not also pause for a single moment to turn our memories to 
those pioneers in the cause of justice, of whom wc can say, 



88 

<' Would they had lived to have seen this day." I need not 
name them ; their memories are still green in our hearts, but 
the names of two flash before us. PARKER, the divine, 
whose lips ever defended the cause of freedom in this hall ! 
(Applause.) MANN, the teacher, a pioneer of education to 
an oppressed race. (Applause.) It shall not hereafter be 
said that Massachusetts is ungrateful; for to the latter, at 
least, we look forward to the hour when his statue, gracing the 
front of our legislative halls, shall do honor to him and to our 
Commonwealth. (Applause.) The two statues, overshadowing 
the broad entrance to our capitol, making together the full 
complement of a Massachusetts statesman. One, Conservative, 
who wisely expounded the Constitution as it was ; the other, 
Progressive, who dared to look forward to the amendment of 
a material defect of that great instrument, whose passage now 
peals liberty and equality of right to the world. (Loud and 
long-continued applause.) 



1 1 II 

013 708 978 6 #^ 








m 



•^-.S2:?§fe^':i«^ 



^^^^: 



'^Jf 







